Teacher Calls Parents Who Want Schools Reopened White Supremacists as Debate Rages On

A teacher in Sacramento, California, blasted parents who are pushing for the district to restart in-person learning, describing them in a public statement as white supremacists and "pearl-clutching" bullies.

Reopen California Schools groups are demanding an apology from Sacramento City Unified School District administrators after a teacher, identified as John F. Kennedy High School's Damian Harmony, ridiculed them in a social media post. The Sunday post to Facebook accused some parents of abusing teachers and treating them like a "wait staff" amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Latin teacher's post described himself "as a parent in full support of the teachers staying home in distance learning because it remains the safest and most humane practice."

He blasted local parents who have put teachers "in harm's way" by demanding to reopen schools that have been shut down in adherence with coronavirus pandemic social distancing guidelines. Sacramento city schools reached a deal with the teachers union last week to reopen in-person learning as early as April 8.

But Harmony railed against those that have supported the reopening process, comparing them to white supremacists and self-centered "ableists."

"I come to you as a grateful parent. I'm grateful that I kept my children home. And I'm especially grateful for what I heard from parents last week," Harmony's post reads.

"Until then, the only way I could measure the level of white supremacy in my neighborhood was the Next Door app. The people clamoring for a district to break its legally-negotiated MOU with teachers who are going to be teaching their own children, who treat the teachers' efforts as though they've not been exhausting and ever-present, while also going through a pandemic themselves, made it much easier."

"I come to you as a parent in full support of the teachers staying home in distance learning because it remains the safest and most humane practice. I'm as disappointed as I am unsurprised that last week, we all had to hear all the cynical, pearl-clutching, faux-urgency, ableist, structurally white-supremacist, hysteria, even as teachers were moving forward with an MOU that already put them in harm's way and was asking too much of a beleaguered group of professionals."

The reopening of schools has also had setbacks stemming from financial issues. The Sacramento City Teachers Association said last week that the public school system is considering cutting about 130 teachers after budget cuts were handed down by the school board.

Harmony's Sunday post against the parents continued, ridiculing them as a "verbal and entitled few" in an otherwise friendly community.

"This is not a country club. Our teachers are not the wait staff whom you callously and inhumanely disdain because they failed to anticipate that you wanted lime instead of lemon with your water when you walked in the door. This is a public service, aimed at educating your children so they grow up to be better than our generation. You set that back by quite a bit. And they're watching. Our children are watching as you make ablistic attacks on Board Member Pizzotti out of one side of your mouth, and pretend to care about children with special needs with the other."

"This is who you are. Our children are watching, and you showed them, and your teachers, that you value neither. During a pandemic. God help us all if there's another one, because you sure as hell won't. I'm pretty goddamned done being polite and thinking there's an acceptable middle ground on some topics. This is one of them," the post concluded.

Several groups, including Reopen California Schools, responded to the post by demanding an apology from district administrators.

Newsweek reached out to the Sacramento City Unified School District on Monday afternoon for additional remarks.

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