Overview
- A 14-year-old student recorded the incident on Monday showing teacher Karen Whitmire Savage wrap a cord around a Black baby doll’s neck and suspend it from a classroom television before the clip was posted by his mother and went viral.
- Hillsborough County Schools removed Savage from campus, terminated her employment by Wednesday, and reported the incident to the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Professional Practice Services for potential action on her teaching certificate.
- Students in the classroom reacted first with nervous laughter and then shock while classmates told the teacher the act was wrong and racist, and the student who recorded the clip said Savage told them she did it ‘to get their attention.’
- Parents, the local NAACP and community leaders condemned the display as racially offensive and likened it to a simulated lynching, and the student’s mother says she has been contacted by civil rights attorneys and is considering legal action.
- The state office that received the district referral can review and possibly sanction or revoke a teaching certificate, the district has offered counselors to students, and the widely shared video continues to drive community outrage and calls for accountability.