Black Lives Matter activists threatened to shut down a Minneapolis school unless one of its teachers is fired for an inflammatory and derogatory Facebook rant aimed at students.
Theodore Olson, a special education teacher at Como Park High School in St. Paul, wrote Facebook posts condemning the school district and portraying students as drug users, whores and gang-bangers.
According to reports, Rashad Turner, a Black Lives Matter leader and activist, discovered Olson’s posts last week. Olson ranted about the lack of assistance the school district has given teachers and wants an apology for teachers being blamed for contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. His rant references an increase in student-on-teacher altercations and school violence, but he does not mention the race of the students he refers to. He writes:
“Anyone care to explain to me the school-to-prison pipeline my colleagues and I have somehow created, or perpetuated, or not done enough to interrupt? Because if you can’t prove it, and campaigns you’ve waged to deconstruct adult authority in my building by enabling student misconduct, you seriously owe us real teachers an apology. Actually, an apology won’t cut it.”
The local teacher’s union voted last week for a $4.5 million deal that would add 30 full-time staffers and “restorative justice” programs to help put an end to the multiple violent incidents.
Turner ran for a school board seat last November but fell short of winning. He said he is committed to bettering the school system for Black students because they have allegedly been disproportionately suspended.
Turner wrote in response to Olson’s posts, “We have to be the ones to protect our children, they are under attack from the SPFT [St. Paul Federation of Teachers]. This same teacher, feels that the teachers should govern the school.”
BLM St. Paul has threatened protests before to challenge authorities that have been racially insensitive. The group planned to protest a Red Bull Crashed Ice race back in January if St. Paul cop Jeff Rothecker was not fired. Rothecker urged drivers to run over protesters around the MLK holiday but resigned before the protests could take place.
Turner is set to meet the school board’s superintendent today to discuss Olson’s comments and to avoid a possible shutdown.
According to the Star Tribune, “Olson offered to speak with Turner and professed support for Black Lives Matter, saying that he had marched with Turner at a protest on University Avenue.”
The two men have been at odds, and both have tried to communicate with one another to discuss their opposing views. Turner claimed he tried to talk to Olson at the school last week, but Olson allegedly had “called the authorities on me like I was an intruder in the building.”
