A junior high school in Texas pulled an assignment from its lesson plan that compared police officers to members of the Ku Klux Klan.
8th grade teachers at Cooper Junior High in Wylie, Texas, distributed a homework assignment that showed cartoon depictions of various white men, such as a KKK member, a police officer, and slave owner, kneeling on black men’s necks, local outlet Fox 2 reported Monday.
8th grade teachers in a school outside of Dallas, TX (@WylieISD) gave students a home work assignment comparing police officers to slave owners and the KKK.
This is abhorrent and disgusting, and only further widens the gap between police officers and the youth in our community. pic.twitter.com/ELfbjWQu9Z
— Joe Gamaldi (@JoeGamaldi) August 20, 2020
“I cannot begin to tell you how abhorrent and disturbing this comparison is, but what is more disturbing is that no adult within your school thought better before sending this assignment to children,” Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police Joe Gamaldi said in response of the assignment.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also slammed the assignment as “beyond unacceptable.”
“A teacher in a Texas public school comparing police officers to the KKK is beyond unacceptable. It’s the opposite of what must be taught. The teacher should be fired,” Abbott tweeted. “I’m asking the Texas Education Agency to investigate and take action.”
The school announced it pulled the assignment following the pushback.
“We are sorry for any hurt that may have been caused through this lesson. The assignment has been removed, and students will not be expected to complete it,” the school said in a statement.
The creator of the image, cartoonist David Fitzsimmons, also responded to the pushback by leveling criticisms of his own against the FOP.
“I’m impressed the National Fraternal Order of Police is directing its fury at an illustration revealing how our present horrors are mere echoes of our cruel past … Perhaps it requires too much moral courage, or honest clear-eyed reflection, for the National Fraternal Order of Police to funnel their fury at the few racist police officers who disgrace their oath and their badges by disproportionately murdering African Americans,” Fitzsimmons said.
