A Florida teacher has been fired after a video emerged of her hanging a black toy doll by the neck in front of her shocked students.
The disturbing incident was filmed by 14-year-old Noah who said his Barrington Middle School art teacher, Karen Whitmire Savage, confiscated the doll from one of her students because she was frustrated no one was paying attention.
“She took the doll from a student, and after she took the doll, she was like showing us pictures, and nobody was paying attention to it,” Noah said in an interview with WTSP.
“And then after she took the doll, she walked over to her phone, like the phone area where there’s a charge cord on the TV. She took the charger cord and wrapped it around the baby’s neck, and like tied it,” he said.
When the students told Ms Savage that what she was doing was wrong, she “said it was just a joke” and took down the doll, Noah said.
The incident, which unfolded on Monday, was reported to school administrators and, by Tuesday, Ms Savage was removed from the Barrington Middle School campus.
On Wednesday, it was announced that the 63-year-old had been fired and that her behaviour had been reported to the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Professional Practice Services.
Noah said he began recording so there was proof of what happened and sent the footage to his mum, Nina Williams, who shared the video on Instagram.
“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,” Ms Williams wrote in the caption.
“My son’s friends of different cultures and races were all deeply offended and disturbed by this racist act,” she said. “These kids stood united, grabbed evidence, and wrote official statements today.
”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.”
The video quickly garnered attention online, amassing over 10 million views since it was posted three days ago.
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