Tracey Brown Florida teacher under investigation after telling students at Poinciana High School in Kissimmee, Osceola County, that she has the right to dislike blacks.
A white Florida teacher is under investigation after telling students she is entitled to ‘dislike blacks’ after video revealed her saying she was attacked by a gang on a train in Atlanta as a teen.
Video of the exchange between social studies teacher Tracey Brown and students at Poinciana High School in Kissimmee shows a teen telling Brown that some black people live in communities where cops ‘do not treat them right’ during an online class Monday.
‘Do you understand?’ the student says in recorded video during an online class.
‘Stop right there, David,’ Brown replies. ‘Stop! I want to be very clear. What you don’t know about me could fill a friggin’ swimming pool.’
Brown then told the students she was attacked when she was 16 while riding a train in Atlanta by a gang that ‘used the language of blacks,’ footage shows.
I was told to take to twitter so the link for a disciplinary action petition as well as the school’s contact page are in my bio.
The teacher’s name is Tracey Brown and I go to Poinciana High School pic.twitter.com/c38HI8Xzo8
— ✨🌼nessa💫✨ (@holasoynessa) October 13, 2020
Here is all the info we got from the district today. If you know anyone who was in the class when it happened and is willing to talk about it, have them give me a call! https://t.co/DNClh4QGry
— Alexa Lorenzo (@ALorenzoTV) October 14, 2020
Why bring up the rights to dislike any race or association as an educator?
‘I have as much right as anyone else to dislike blacks for what happened to me,’ Brown said. ‘So, you don’t get to preach to me what I do and don’t know.’
Reports told of the original video being shared on social media in consternation following the Osceola County teacher’s remarks, which seemingly appeared to be out of context with the lesson she was supposed to be giving.
A second clip circulating online also showed Brown criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement, WFTV reports.
‘You are implying that black lives matter more than anyone else,’ Brown says at one point.
The student whom Brown admonished said the teacher’s comments came during a discussion about the social movement after veering from an original discussion about the constitution.
‘I took offense to it because I am black,’ the student told WFTV. ‘I didn’t want her to, like, say anything about this at all.’
‘We’re going over the amendments…then some kids started asking different things,’ the student recalled.
The clip continued with Brown saying she was a ‘little bit more educated’ than the assailants who attacked her as a teen.
‘We will not tolerate behavior by students or staff which insults, degrades, or stereotypes…’
‘And I was raised that skin tone is nothing but pigment,’ Brown continues. ‘It has nothing to do with who you are on the inside.’
Brown then turned her anger toward the Black Lives Matter movement, denigrating its supporters as ‘entitled, self-righteous individuals.’
‘I guarantee you wouldn’t support the movement at its heart,’ Brown told the students, video shows.
Brown has since been reassigned to a position outside the classroom with no interaction with students as school officials investigate the incident, Osceola County School District spokeswoman Dana Schafer said in a released statement.
‘Racism, intolerance, and injustice have no place in our communities or in our schools,’ Schafer said.
Adding, ‘We will not tolerate behavior by students or staff which insults, degrades, or stereotypes any race, gender, disability, physical condition, ethnic group, religion, or sexual orientation.’
Brown, who first joined the district in 2012, left three years later before returning in 2018, Schafer said.
Thousands of people have signed an online petition demanding Brown be disciplined. School officials continue to investigate.
