Cary Altschuler Lake Worth math teacher fired for comparing students skin colour to coffee roasts in the latest scandal involving educator who has been causing waves since 2018.
A Florida high school teacher has been fired after he likened the skin color of some of his students to coffee roasts earlier in the year. It has since been revealed the episode wasn’t the educator’s first time round the dizzy merry go round and then some…
AP statistics teacher Cary Altschuler at Lake Worth High School made the comparison when he put three students’ photos on the board with the descriptions ‘extra cream,’ ‘medium roast’ and ‘dark roast’ next to them, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Brief pause. Watch carefully to see if there is any palpable reaction from students. Any moment now…
Racially charged and improper comments
The Palm Beach County school board reportedly approved the teacher’s termination last Wednesday after the district’s superintendent recommended Altschuler be ousted following February’s ‘blunder’.
Lake Worth High School Principal Dr. Elena Villani told the school community after the incident that Altschuler displayed ‘egregiously inappropriate content,’ CBS 12 reported.
She additionally said his actions have ‘no place in school settings or anywhere’ and called it ‘racially charged.’
The under-fire teacher told CBS 12 last week he made a mistake when he attempted to ‘joke around’ with his students.
When two students were teasing each other about their skin tone, he said he interjected in the back-and-forth, saying ‘if they were going to make fun of each other to be creative.’
The educator admitted it exposed his bias was ‘stupid of him’ to do.
During the district’s probe into Altschuler, he revealed two of the photos were from students in his class this year and one photo was a student from last year, according to the investigation’s findings reported on by WPTV.
Altschuler also admitted telling students that slavery wasn’t that bad, portraying a plantation owner’s perspective.
‘I am not a traditional teacher and this is my second career,’ Altschuler said, according to school district investigative documents seen by WPTV.
‘I’m doing what I can, I teach them the material, I teach them the standards, I teach them what they have to learn.
‘I also try to get them to think outside of being spoon fed information by their teacher on how to solve the problem.’
The district stated Altschuler violated policies including ethical misconduct, inappropriate comments/interaction with students and failure to follow established policies, WPTV reported.
Prior history of provocation
Altschuler had previously taught in Hollywood and Broward County where he had also come under focus. In 2018, the educator was formally reprimanded and placed on placed on two years of probation by the Florida Dept of Education after reportedly making inappropriate and sometimes sexual comments about female students and what they were wearing.
While Altschuler was being investigated over his latest crop of faux pas, he was removed from the classroom and placed in a position where he would not have any interaction with students.
During that investigation, his students reported they felt he was racist and made uncomfortable statements during math class.
The former teacher, who had been working at the high school since 2020, was officially terminated when the Palm Beach County School board voted him out on Wednesday.
The educator’s termination is effective August 25.
According to his Linkedin profile, Altschuler is now employed as a freelance data analyst, as of this month.
