A teacher from a Dallas-area school district has been fired after she sent controversial tweets about the Ferguson, Missouri shooting of teen Michael Brown.
The Duncanville School Board of Trustees voted unanimously to fire English teacher Vinita Hegwood, who sent the tweets last week. She had been suspended without pay on Monday and decided to resign on Thursday, reports WFAA.
State law mandated the board to decide to either accept her resignation or terminate the contract. They decided to terminate her contract.
"The Board of Trustees and I know that we make decisions that are in the best interest of our students," Superintendent Dr. Alfred Ray told WFAA. "And we feel like this decision that was made today was in the best interest of our students."
According to The Associated Press, the tweets in question were filled with profanity and racist remarks against blacks and whites. The comments, sent on Nov. 7, were in reverence to the case of Brown, a black teen shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson on Aug. 9. That shooting has lead to often violent protests in the St. Louis area.
Hegwood, who is black, apologized for the “offensive and unprofessional comments.” She added, “In making those remarks, I was reacting to a series of threatening and racist attacks against me by strangers who disagreed with my expressed opinions on Ferguson, Missouri. I allowed myself to respond emotionally and impulsively.”
WFAA reported on Thursday that one of the controversial tweets Hegwood sent read, “Who the [expletive] made you dumb duck ass crackers think I give a squat [expletive] about your opinions about my opinions RE: Ferguson? Kill yourselves.”
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