An English teacher in Texas may be fired after she seemingly told students to refer to pedophiles as "minor-attracted persons" in a teaching lesson caught on video.
In a viral video, El Paso Independent School District teacher Amber Parker appears to tell her students not to "label people" with the word pedophile. Instead, she says they should refer to them as "minor-attracted persons."
"We're not going to call them that. We're going to call them MAPs, minor-attracted persons," Parker said to her students. "So don't judge people just because they want to have sex with a 5-year-old."
According to The Christian Post, the El Paso ISD school board has since voted to begin the process of terminating Parker's contract. She teaches at Franklin High School in El Paso.
But trustee member Daniel Call said the video was also taken out of context.
"After hearing from some of the students that were in the class, including my own nephew, I believe now that the teacher that appeared to be promoting and normalizing pedophilia was pretending to advocate a position she didn't actually believe in order to challenge the students in preparation for them reading the book 'The Crucible,'" he wrote.
"The video that many of us saw was missing this important context," he concluded. "I regret the negative attention that this situation has brought on this teacher and wish her well."
A man named Jason Parker responded to Call's online comments, saying he was "the husband of the teacher in question."
"It is both scary and disturbing that an edited 18-second clip could destroy a 30-year career when taken completely out of context. Needless to say, we have spent many sleepless nights because of this cruel release to social media of the 18 seconds," Parker wrote.
"We pray that you and the rest of the board will see this for what it is and not allow [an] edited video [to] destroy an innocent woman, her career and her family in the process," he added.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Andrea Obzerova
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
