A Florida middle school teacher is on administrative leave after using his students as ‘political props’ in a series of TikTok videos, which included his white students being forced to act as slaves for their black peers. Other videos attack the state’s effort to ban pornographic and racially-divisive books in schools, with the teacher yelling and throwing his students’ books around the classroom. The videos were exposed by LibsOfTikTok on Twitter, sparking outrage.
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In the first series of videos, Howard Middle School Language Arts teacher Ethan Hooper forces his students to participate in several mock book bannings. In one scene entitled “POV: A FLORIDA CLASSROOM,” the students are held in detention while being made to repeat the phrases, “I shall not read books,” “books are bad,” and “if I read it’s approved by the feds.” Hooper then pretends to reprimand a student for reading without permission.
Another scene shows Hooper pretending to confiscate books from his students, including Harry Potter. He swipes one book with a black character on the cover, telling his student, “a black boy? No, absolutely not.” He continues in another skit, pretending to ban the dictionary in his classroom.
Florida teacher makes students participate in a series of tiktoks mocking the FL Dept of Education for removing books from schools containing pornography, CRT, and gender ideology pic.twitter.com/i8BzdhFsbw
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 17, 2023
In another video captioned “Black History Month… the Shortest Month of the Year,” Hooper’s white students are made to act as servants to his black students. The black students are made to sit and relax in the middle of the classroom while their white peers feed them snacks, bow down, and worship them.
This Florida teacher made students participate in a skit for black history month where white students act like servants for black students pic.twitter.com/g29SgNd3pn
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 17, 2023
After the videos went viral, the school district swiftly responded by putting Hooper on administrative leave. In a statement published by WESH 2, the district wrote,
“Orange County Public Schools will not tolerate the use of our children as political pawns by anyone, including a classroom teacher. Any employee of who creates videos or other content with students in an effort to exploit them for political purposes will be immediately removed from the classroom, placed on administrative leave and swift action will be taken to terminate employment.”
The Orange County Public Schools superintendent Maria Vazquez said she was horrified by the videos.
“I am appalled at the behavior and judgment of the teacher who posted the inappropriate videos using his students as political props. This is not free speech — it is the exploitation of our students for political purposes, and it will not be tolerated in our school district.”
Under HB 1467, the classroom transparency law signed in 2022, Florida school books must be reviewed by media specialists and flagged if they contain any pornographic, violent, or age-inappropriate content. According to the Florida Department of Education, 164 books have been removed from school libraries and media centers under the criteria.
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The DeSantis administration has warned of teachers trying to spread false information about the law, particularly after staged videos of empty bookshelves went viral in an attempt to generate controversy earlier this month. “I think the school unions are involved with this,” Governor DeSantis told reporters at an event on Tuesday. “I mean, you guys can FOIA some of these communications. I guarantee you; you’ll find some of that with the people that are doing it. So that’s a joke, OK?”
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