He said he had no regrets about setting the assignment.
According to a report, a teacher in Florida was fired after asking students to write their own obituaries before an active shooter drill on campus. nbc news, Jeffrey Keene, a psychology teacher at Phillips High School, said he felt he exercised discretion when assigning assignments to 11th and 12th grade students during first period on Tuesday.
Mr. Keene said that after hearing about the drill on Monday, he believed that the students’ obituaries would encourage them to consider their own lives in the event of a school shooter. He recalled what he told the 35 students, “It’s no way to bother you or anything like that.”
“It wasn’t to scare them or make them feel like they were going to die, but to help them understand what’s important in their lives and what they want to do with their lives,” the psychology teacher told the outlet. How do they want to move forward and how do they want to pursue things in their journey.”
Eventually it turned out that someone was unhappy with the teacher’s work. By second period that day, some of Mr. Keene’s students reportedly told him that school officials had questioned him regarding the obituaries. He was informed that he was dismissed from his position, which he began in January in the middle of the seventh term.
“If you can’t have a real talk with them, what’s going on in this environment? In my mind, I’ve done nothing wrong,” he said.
In a statement, the Orange County School District said, “Families at Dr. Phillips High School were notified that a teacher had given an inappropriate assignment regarding school violence. Administration immediately investigated and the probationary employee was terminated.” “
Mr. Keene told NBC News that he had no administrative way to request a return to his job because he was a new employee to be eligible for membership in the local teachers’ union. Furthermore, according to the school district’s statement, Mr. Keene was still completing his post-hiring probation, suggesting that his dismissal could be done more quickly than a teacher who had completed a probationary period. .
He concluded, “I don’t think I did anything wrong. I know hindsight is 20/20, but I honestly didn’t think a 16-, 17-, 18-year-old would talk about something would be annoyed or upset by doing so.” talking about.”