Elementary Schoolteacher Under Fire for Using Students as Racist Memes
Most parents send their children to school trusting that their sons and daughters are in good hands and not in the care of a teacher who would use them as props to make racist jokes on social media. But the latter is exactly what happened at Deer Park Elementary School in Baltimore County, Md., where teacher Kelly Forostiak is facing disciplinary action for making some very poor decisions involving her fifth-grade students, according to the Baltimore Sun.
In pictures now deleted from Forostiak’s Instagram (but obtained by Atlanta Black Star thanks to an anonymous tipster), the kids are captured and ridiculed using mean-spirited comments for the amusement of the teacher and her followers. One particularly heartbreaking shot shows a young black boy wearing a sombrero and a fake mustache as he stares wide-eyed into the camera. “This is an African American Mexican. #HappyHalloween,” the teacher labels the photo, in a sad attempt at humor at the expense of an innocent child.
Another image of an adorable, grinning little girl is captioned with the meme-like line, “When all the kids and staff are questioning your lipstick but you just flash the ‘Bitch I’m cute AF’ face.” Clearly, Forostiak is projecting her own insecurities with that one — and obviously, she has stepped far beyond the lines of professionalism, maturity, and decorum. And at first, she wasn’t even sorry.
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In yet a third, a group of students are huddled together on a lawn, hamming it up for their teacher’s camera. Forostiak decided to caption the fun photo, “Field day with my little ***holes that I somehow still love #5thgradeswag.” The sass fell flat for one reader, who confronted the woman in the comments section of her private Instagram about the distastefulness of her post, writing “I don’t think as a teacher you’re supposed to call your students little ***holes on social media,” lightening up the comment with a “laughing” emoji.
Forostiak — still unable to sense the gravity of her behavior and the irony of the fact that she’ is, by default, one of her students’ biggest moral influences — justified her actions, writing back, “It is okay they are 11 going on 18 hahaha.”
Now (that she’s in trouble), though, she’s sorry. Per a statement from the county schools spokesman Mychael Dickerson, Kelly Forostiak regrets “posting the image and making the comments,” according to the Baltimore Sun, which added that Dickerson could not elaborate on the discipline Forostiak might face in the wake of the scandal because it is a “personnel matter.”
Social media reactions to Forostiak’s actions were divided. According to Atlanta Black Star, some condemned the misguided social media “humor” (exploitation?) when it was shared on Facebook. One user wrote, “It’s absolutely not okay. Our children deserve better and we need to protect them and make sure they get it.” Another said, “There are certain occupations that you take that have a higher moral code than others, being a teacher is one of them.” A third wrote, “It’s just inappropriate for teachers to do certain things.”
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But there were others who felt everyone should just lighten up — it’s the age of social media, anyway, where everyone’s a comedian and anything can be made into a meme. Harmless, right? “My kid can be an ***hole and I still love him. Why can’t she feel the same way. Our kids are with their teachers more than they are with us during the day. If she was black would it be more exceptable? [sic],” one person commented.
Another added, “Yea, we are over reacting … if she had said lil slaves or future strippers or drug dealers. OK fire her ***. But this is innocent and over reacting to me,” demonstrating that we all set the bar of decency at different levels.
A teacher in Forostiak’s school district, according to Atlanta Black Star, even chimed in to defend her, commenting, “And she probably the best teacher. The kids probably love her. I work for Baltimore county and half of the teachers talk like this,” the woman wrote.
“It’s an extremely poor choice of words,” overstated Emory Young, president of the Baltimore County Parent Teacher Association Council, in a statement obtained by the Baltimore Sun. “She should have used something more positive and uplifting.” As of the time of this article’s publication, Forostiak is still employed with the school system, says the publication, and the school district is declining further comment.
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