A white middle school teacher in Texas has been fired after telling his students that he thinks the white race is superior—a claim that was captured on camera.
In a video that went viral on social media last week, a Bohls Middle School teacher in Pflugerville explained to his class—with a heavy demographic of Black students—that, essentially, white is right, Fox 7 Austin reported.
On Monday morning, a letter from Pflugerville Superintendent Douglas Killian said the teacher was “no longer employed” by the district following his “inappropriate, inaccurate, and unacceptable” comments, according to KXAN Austin.
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A mashup video of the incident was initially shared by one of the students, @babysizzle808, on Instagram Saturday.
“I have always been raised to respect my elders[.] my parents don’t play about that at all!” the student captioned the post. “This still won’t change me[.] I’m still going to be the same[.] it’s just crazy this happened at my school to me and my friends. Im glad my parents stay on me and taught me how to move in situations like this.”
The video was later shared by the student’s father, @808mafiaboss, receiving nearly 300,000 likes and over 4,000 comments on Instagram.
In the first clip of the post, a kid, who is Black, complains about not being able to go to the restroom when other groups can.
“Bro, that’s racist,” the child says to the teacher, but loud enough for the class of diverse students to hear.
“So, if I was racist, I wouldn’t let you go to the restroom, would I?” a white teacher in a blue shirt and glasses asks the student after writing a pass.
In the next clip, the teacher is sitting down with the group of students in a circle. The child who asked to use the restroom sits across from the teacher as other students seemingly discuss racism with their instructor. The child who asked to use the restroom claims the teacher is not a former racist, but an active racist.
“I’m frustrated with this conversation,” the teacher says in a third clip after students ask, again, if he considers himself to be racist.
The student who asked to use the restroom forewarns the teacher about his dad’s notoriety on social media, and says the footage will get posted online.
“You guys do what you need to do,” the teacher responds. “You guys don’t think that I’ve made peace with all this stuff? You think I’m still walking around prejudiced against people?”
“Deep down in my heart,” the teacher is filmed saying in a fourth clip, “I’m ethnocentric, which means I think my race is the superior race.”
Kids in the classroom immediately explode in laughter. One student asks the teacher if he felt as if the white race was better than others.
“I think everybody thinks that,” the teacher says. “They’re just not honest about it.”
Rhema Benjamin, an eighth grader present in the classroom during the conversation, said it was her “first time” hearing someone outright admit they were racist. He explained to KXAN that, just prior to the discussion caught on video, the teacher had chastised him for walking into the room wearing a Black Lives Matter sticker.
“He made me take it off,” Benjamin said.
The middle schooler’s mother, Millicent Benjamin, said she was proud of how her son and his friends had responded to the incident. “I am happy the children had enough courage within themselves to be able to get this on tape and be able to report it to the administration,” she said.
The teacher, who has not been identified, was placed on administrative leave on Friday, after the video went viral on social media and was given to the district.
“This interaction does not align with our core beliefs as a district,” a Nov. 11 statement from Douglas Killian read. “The video of the conversation includes statements that we find wholly inappropriate. The teacher has been placed on administrative leave while Human Resources conducts an investigation. The advisory activity was inappropriate, inaccurate, and unacceptable. This type of interaction will not be tolerated in [Pflugerville Independent School District] schools.”
Neither the district nor the student’s parent immediately responded to The Daily Beast’s request for comment Monday.
