A Texas teacher who posted a profanity-filled tweet over the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. — telling those who disagreed with her to “kill themselves” — is being fired, school officials said Monday.
Vinita Hegwood, an English teacher at Duncanville High School, was suspended without pay Monday pending her discharge after posting a “reprehensible” message on her personal Twitter account, according to the Duncanville Independent School District.
On Friday, Hegwood tweeted the following: “Who the f–k made you dumb duck a– crackers think I give a squat f–k about your opinions about my opinions RE” #Ferguson? Kill yourselves.”
In Duncanville, there was speculation on social media that Hegwood, who had tweeted actively during the turmoil in Ferguson in August, was responding to angry online retorts directed at her. Hegwood, who has been with the school district for two years, could not be reached for comment.
A grand jury is expected to announce this month whether it will indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Brown, an unarmed black man who was killed by a white police officer following a scuffle in August in a St. Louis suburb. The events surrounding the shooting have been under investigation by a county grand jury, which will determine whether there is probable cause to indict Wilson in the shooting.
[pullquote]
Brown’s death ignited racial tensions and sparked mass rioting in the streets of Ferguson — unrest area residents and law enforcement fear may happen again should the grand jury chose not to indict Wilson.
Hegwood’s tweet and account were deleted shortly afterward, but the school said it took “swift action and exercised the fullest disciplinary action allowed under district policy.”
“Ms. Hegwood was placed on suspension without pay pending discharge,” the school district said during a morning press conference Monday. “Under state law, a school district’s Board of Trustees ‘fires’ staff members, and the district will pursue that action with the board soon. In the meantime, the teacher has been placed on suspension without pay, pending discharge.”
“The district wants the community to know that the actions of this one individual does not and should not represent the school district,” said school officials in Duncanville, a city of just under 40,000 in Dallas County.
In her Twitter account, which has been taken down, Hegwood described herself.
“Mother. Daughter. Sister. Wife. Teacher. Delta. Football fan. Still defining and fine tuning the awesomeness that is me,” it read.
The White House on Friday emphasized its commitment to defusing continued tensions over the Ferguson police shooting. President Obama spoke Friday with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Justice Department officials who stepped in after the shooting.
In St. Louis, meanwhile, the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services met with top commanders from Ferguson, the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and the Missouri Highway Patrol at a two-day session that concluded Friday.
Click here to see the Duncanville Independent School District press conference
FoxNews.com’s Cristina Corbin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Leave a Reply