A Florida middle school teacher’s blatant political exploitation of students begged one simple question: “How is this okay?”
The left has remained up in arms over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) leading his state to seal up favored inroads of indoctrination like propaganda disguised as curriculum or, in some cases, overt pornography marketed as culturally enriching. In response to the possibility of losing readily accessible tools to program future Democratic voters, Howard Middle School teacher Ethan Hooper of Orange County used his students as pawns in a number of questionable videos.
In one of the latest exposures by social media stalwart Libs of TikTok, Hooper can be seen in the “POV: A Florida Teacher” segments declaring “About to run up on these kids and start banning these books right away.”
As Libs put it, “Florida teacher makes students participate in a series of tiktoks mocking the FL Dept of Education for removing books from schools containing pornography, CRT, and gender ideology.”
How is this okay? https://t.co/CSZafwIRQy
— TallTanOne (@TallTanOne) February 19, 2023
From there on, Hooper proceeds around the group of middle school students reading off the titles of books like “Harry Potter” and “Wonder” as confiscates them as “Problematic Books.” In another segment, adorned with a “Black Teachers Matter” shirt, he then pulls dictionaries away from the students contending even those are inappropriate before, in the final snippet, he has the class lined up reciting fictional dogma:
“I shall not read books.”
“Books are bad.”
“If I read it’s approved by the Feds.”
In a separate video highlighted by Libs, Hooper had his white students behave as servants to the black students in recognition of Black History Month.
This Florida teacher made students participate in a skit for black history month where white students act like servants for black students pic.twitter.com/g29SgNd3pn
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 17, 2023
Understandably outraged, the public reached out demanding action and DeSantis’ 2022 gubernatorial reelection campaign rapid response director Christina Pushaw shared the news that Hooper was placed on administrative leave and Orange County Public Schools Media Manager Michael Ollendorff told Florida’s Voice, “swift action” was forthcoming.
Glad to see things being dealt with locally. I appreciate everything y'all have been doing but can't assume the state can handle everything.
And yea, this guy fafo'd. Good.
— Ross Davidson (@RossDavidson7) February 19, 2023
Ollendorff said, “Any employee who creates videos or other content with students in an effort to exploit them for political purposes will be immediately removed from the classroom, placed on administrative leave and swift action will be taken to terminate employment.”
The same sentiment was expressed by Superintendent Maria Vazquez who told the outlet, “I am appalled at the behavior and judgement of the teacher who posted the inappropriate videos using his students as political props. This is not free speech — it is the exploitation of our students for political purposes and it will not be tolerated in our school district.”
It remains unclear whether Hooper had sought permission from the students’ parents before having them perform for his videos but reactions to the viral posts showed wide spread support for the Orange County School Districts expected handling of the teacher who, at the time of this posting, was still listed as a Language Arts teacher.
Disgusting.. I hope he was fired
— aka (@akafacehots) February 18, 2023
https://twitter.com/roswells51/status/1626671298247266305
He should be fired and permanently banned from the profession.
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) February 17, 2023
https://twitter.com/PatrickGilmar15/status/1626609152691957767
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