Uproar After Saugerties Teacher Makes Claims About George Floyd wblk.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wblk.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A high school teacher based in Saugerties, New York, gave students a writing assignment that said that
George Floyd died from an overdose and heart attack rather than neck compressions and oxygen shortages.
As a result, some parents in the school district have demanded accountability from the teacher and school leadership to implement an accurate, equitable, and racially conscious curriculum.
The teacher gave the students two examples of a “thematic” statement to prepare for the standardized Regents Examination. One of the examples said that George Floyd died as a result of an overdose. The other said there was new evidence that trial juror
Last week, Antonelli asked students to respond to a prompt in a Regents exam format, using phrases like it is evident, it is clear, and it is obvious. Students needed to justify their claim with a bold topic and thematic sentence to the following prompt: George Floyd did not die because Chauvin s knee was on his neck. He died from a heart attack and drug overdose. However, because Chauvin used excessive force and failed to render aid, he was convicted on all three counts by a jury of his peers. (Arrest was over a counterfeit $20 bill.)
Antonelli went on to discuss a specific juror, Brandon Mitchell, and the validity of his assertions that he had not participated in Black rights protests and could be an unbiased juror.
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Calls for a Hudson Valley teacher to either be fired or resign are growing over what many are calling a racist assignment.
The controversy began last week in Ulster County when Saugerties High School English teacher Hope Antonelli, gave her ninth-grade English class a writing assignment stating that “George Floyd did not die because (Derek) Chauvin’s knee was on his neck. He died from a heart attack and drug overdose.”
Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, was found guilty of murder and manslaughter on Tuesday, April 20 for killing Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, as Floyd pleaded that he could not breathe.