Karen Whitmire Savage fired after Florida arts teacher takes black child’s baby doll and hangs it in front of her ‘shocked’ middle class students as she later claimed she was joking and trying to get the attention of her students.
A Florida middle school teacher has been fired after video captured her hanging a black baby doll by its neck in class, as she sought to shock her rowdy students in a bid ‘to get their attention.’
Karen Whitmire Savage, an arts teacher at Barrington Middle School in Lithic in viral video is seen cinching a black wire around the doll’s neck during class on Monday — before throwing it over a hanging flat-screen television.
Savage, 63, who had moments earlier snatched the black doll from a black child in class, left the doll dangling in front of her shellshocked students, telling them she had hung the black baby doll to get their attention, only to receive national condemnation.
Hate and trauma weaponized during class
One of her students, Noah Carter, 14, recorded the incident, leading to the boy’s mom, Nina Williams, sharing the cringe episode in a Facebook post.
Wrote the appalled parent in part: ‘Look at the photo. Look at the video. When the children called out this blatant, disgusting act of hate and asked why she hung that doll by its neck, she laughed it off. Her excuse to our kids was that she did it ‘to get their attention.
‘This is NOT a classroom management tool. This is straight up hate and trauma being weaponized in front of our children in a place where they are supposed to be safe.’
Speaking to WTSP the middle school student stated the teacher snatching the doll from a black student and, when ‘nobody was paying attention,’ hanging it from the television.
‘Everybody started telling her it was wrong and racist to do that,’ Carter told the outlet.
‘And then she said it was just a joke, and then she took down the doll.’
School district confirms racist teacher fired
The student claimed that Savage followed him when he tried to report her to the student affairs office, then talked over him as he recounted what happened.
‘It was really disturbing,’ Carter added.
‘I hope that she’s not allowed to teach again. Because she shouldn’t be allowed to teach if she does things like that.’
Savage was initially removed from the classroom pending an internal probe, but the Hillsborough County Schools District confirmed she was fired Wednesday.
Williams told WTSP that she is considering taking legal action against the district.
