Texas High School Teacher Placed on Leave, Could Be Fired Over Jaw-Dropping Ferguson Tweet

A high school English teacher in Duncanville, Texas, has been placed on leave without pay and could ultimately be fired over a “reprehensible” Ferguson-related tweet she allegedly posted on Friday.

In the jaw-dropping tweet, Vinata Hegwood reportedly said she doesn’t give a “f***” which “dumb duck (sic) ass crackers” think about the ongoing tensions in Ferguson, Missouri. She concluded the tweet by telling those people to “Kill yourselves.” The social media storm started brewing almost immediately.

Here is a fine example of one of our public school teachers. I am sure the students were receiving an excellent, unbiased education from this paragon of virtue. /sarcasm

This is absolutely disgusting and nothing short of her losing her job is acceptable. I wouldn't want this racist PoS teaching my children.


Link

a reply to: Metallicus

Ok I haven't read your source but so far I see two things she said that are actually fairly redeeming.

1) she gives no ducks
2) she wishes (twitter users?) to kill themselves

a reply to: Metallicus

Can we use the same standards towards the police that have been fired for racist comments on facebook and twitter during these Ferguson protests? You wish to label all school teachers, shall we label all police the same way?

She should be fired.

originally posted by: LDragonFire
a reply to: Metallicus

Can we use the same standards towards the police that have been fired for racist comments on facebook and twitter during these Ferguson protests? You wish to label all school teachers, shall we label all police the same way?

She should be fired.

Absolutely, police or anyone in the public employ shouldn't be allowed to go on public, racist tirades without consequences.

originally posted by: Metallicus

A high school English teacher in Duncanville, Texas, has been placed on leave without pay and could ultimately be fired over a “reprehensible” Ferguson-related tweet she allegedly posted on Friday.

In the jaw-dropping tweet, Vinata Hegwood reportedly said she doesn’t give a “f***” which “dumb duck (sic) ass crackers” think about the ongoing tensions in Ferguson, Missouri. She concluded the tweet by telling those people to “Kill yourselves.” The social media storm started brewing almost immediately.

Here is a fine example of one of our public school teachers. I am sure the students were receiving an excellent, unbiased education from this paragon of virtue. /sarcasm

This is absolutely disgusting and nothing short of her losing her job is acceptable. I wouldn't want this racist PoS teaching my children.

Link

i feel the same way whenever a white person gets accosted walking down the wrong street in chicago. there should be not a single street outside of a military compound that i as an american citizen should be afraid of setting foot on. and yet those kinds of roads are everywhere. guarded by all kinds of ethnicities who shoot you if you arent the right color. these people believe an injustice has happened and they want the same thing we would in similar circumstances. i cant really find it in me to condemn someone who is hurting and sees the government doing nothing about it.

From what I understand she posted this from her personal computer, on her own time. I disagree with what she says, but, I support her right to say it. If it can be shown that she used school resources to make posts like this or that she expressed her views to her students, then I would support her firing. To me, this opens a can of worms that is better left closed. This clears the way for an employer to fire anyone that posts something that they disagree with. Think about some of the posts made here on ATS. Would they be made if there was a possibility that the poster would lose their job over it?

a reply to: Metallicus

That is some pretty severe vitriol. Outside of the racist remark, which is eh on its own, the statement of "kill yourselves" is the one that really makes me think that this woman should not be teaching children. Anyone, regardless of race or political belief, that thinks that a different opinion than their own should be met with "kill yourselves" is a pretty sketchy human being. It shows an almost psychopath level of disdain for another human being's right to have a difference of opinion as well as their right to life. As a teacher, she should have set the bar higher for herself and instead, used intellect and wit to her advantage, as a role model. Not vitriol. Definitely not "kill yourselves".

a reply to: JIMC5499

Free speech is protected, but you must be willing to accept the consequences.

In this case she has a fiduciary relationship with the public...she is responsible for teaching our children. She has to be held to a higher standard than a someone working in a factory or other non-public career.

I'd be more inclined to fire this teacher for the inability to communicate a coherent thought.

The report will be out in a day or two as soon as the polar bomb settles in. Little cold weather and fire hose to calm things down.

Then again who really cares

a reply to: JIMC5499

Normally I would agree and I actually have defended a local teacher who was put on suspension for his personal political activities and statements. However, there's a difference between having a political opinion and arguing for it from your own personal computer and when it crosses a line. Being a good role model in terms of political activism as being important for every citizen regardless of whether I agree with that opinion is great--as long as it remains outside of the classroom. Now her tweet was obviously outside of the classroom and from her personal device. No problem there. However, this teacher crossed a line from being a good role model for political activism and right on into the hate filled vitriol that shouldn't be considered acceptable discourse ("kill yourselves") .

I won't defend this teacher not because she had a political opinion. I won't defend her because of the specific vitriol. Good people, at least in my book, don't tell somebody else to "kill themselves" for having a difference of opinion. It shows a level of inherent rabidness that never belongs in a classroom.

She was fired

www.foxnews.com...

Good riddance. Any white teacher using the "n" word would have been gone. She is being just as racist and got what she deserved.

a reply to: Metallicus

Unacceptable to have small children around anyone with this mind set. I would have pulled my children out if they had not have suspended her. I know we have freedom of speech but this screams of way too much hate. Darren Wilson has not been charged with the murder of Michael Brown but a verdict is suspected Friday. No way would I allow my child in her class, I would be too scared of her mental stability if Wilson is found "not guilty" since there is already a expectation the grand jury will not indict Wilson. Vinata Hegwood is spewing racism at its best.

And this is what passes for "Teachers" nowadays? America is doomed!

a reply to: Metallicus


Sadly, this is just a symptom of the simmering resentment many feel towards the actions in Ferguson.

Right or wrong, ugly or not, she has the freedom to opine.

Now she has even more freedom (and time) to opine.

I don't know if I would have fired her, though. But that's just me.

a reply to: Metallicus

Oh no it's the right-wing PC police! It's getting so nobody an say anything anymore! What about the First Amendment br0!?

I'm half-joking. She sounds like a tool. She also dropped the N-bomb for good measure before she got snitched on by a user calling herself the "JewishJihadi" — welcome to the Internet!

I do however find it funny that when white people are slinging epithets and get called out on it, there's always a line of right-wing apologists talking about the evil "PC police" and offering up irrelevant arguments involving the First Amendment. Remember the CT sheriff who dropped the n-bomb in the restaurant a few months back? There was a thread with about 1,000 posts from people rushing to defend him.

Here's the difference as a lefty: I have absolutely no problem seeing this woman lose her job.

originally posted by: ~Lucidity
I'd be more inclined to fire this teacher for the inability to communicate a coherent thought.

DING-DING-DING-DING!!!

From the comments section on the link:

had a friend that had a daughter who was a straight A student. A new year started and she was failing English and told her dad she couldn’t understand the teacher when he asked what the problem was. He arranged a meeting and was sitting in the principal’s office when the English teacher walked in and said, “What it is dat it is dat we be talk’n bout.”

His daughter had a new English teacher the next day.

If I had been subjected to ONE DAY of that, I'd have quit school and never looked back. I hated it when I had teachers dumber than myself and it happened an awful lot.

All we're doing in incrementally closing the box on free speech.
One phrase and one word at a time.
I don't think either the school or free speech are served by her firing.
There's countless other public school teachers who think and feel the same as her.
When they made Sterling sell the Clippers over his alleged indiscretion I knew we'd already fallen off the PC cliff.

a reply to: LDragonFire

I think she should be fired just for poor composition of her tweet.
She is a teacher?

She's a teacher?

Meanwhile nice double standards in this society.

I hear cracker and white boy 15 times a day. The n word? Nope, unless it ends with a and even then it's not from "urban white boys".

This country's so broken it's like trying to piece together a broken bottle with tape and expecting it to hold water.