Texas teacher fired for asking Donald Trump to "remove the stowaways"

TO CLOSE

A Texas school board has voted unanimously to dismiss a high school English teacher who contacted President Donald Trump on Twitter and encouraged him to deport illegal immigrants from his Fort Worth district.

Georgia Clark, who taught English at Carter-Riverside High School since 1998, was fired on Tuesday – less than a week after her suspension for her social media posts.

"Mr. President of the Fort Worth Independent School District is responsible for illegal students from Mexico, Carter-Riverside High School has been taken over by them, drug traffickers are on our campus and nothing has been done to them when drugged dogs found the evidence, "Clark tweeted on May 17 on his now-deleted Twitter account, @ Rebecca1939, the Washington Post reported.

"Anything you can do to eliminate the illegals from Fort Worth would be greatly appreciated," she writes in another tweet.

Clark admitted that the tweets were hers, but added that she was thinking of sending a private message to the president, according to documents obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

During the investigation, the school district also learned that Clark had made race-insensitive racist comments to students in his class, the Star-Telegram reported. A student told district officials that on May 17, Clark had said, "Mexicans should not enter our country illegally," and when a student asked to go to the bathroom, she would have replied: "Show me your papers that say you're legal."

Clark denied making these statements. She was suspended in 2013 for allegedly calling a group of students from "little Mexico" and another from "white bread," KXAS-TV reported.

Nearly 63% of students in the Fort Worth Independent School District are Hispanic, according to the station.

In a 1982 decision of the United States Supreme Court in Plyler v. United States (No. Doe, a student's immigrant status was irrelevant to his right to public education. Federal law requires that no student be denied "free public education" because of his legal status in the country.

School principal Kent P. Scribner spoke about the incident in a message posted on the district's Facebook page, explaining to parents and guardians that "the safety and well-being of their children is always our priority number one ".

"Our mission is to prepare ALL students for success in academic, professional and community leadership," wrote Scribner. "Allow me to reiterate our commitment that every child in the district is welcome and should be treated with dignity and respect."

Lily Altavena, Republic of Arizona