Alexandra Schonfeld
Thu, August 11, 2022
fifth-graders decorate a bulletin board outside their classroom
Marshfield News-Herald/Casey Riffe/AP
A teacher in Florida has resigned after he says a school district employee removed photos of historic Black American figures from a bulletin board in his classroom.
Michael James, the teacher, reported the incident that occurred at the O.J. Semmes Elementary School to both Escambia County Superintendent Tim Smith and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in an email, The Pensacola Journal reported.
James told the paper that he chose the theme for the bulletin board because the majority of the students in his class are Black and he wanted to showcase leaders that his students could look up to and see themselves in.
James said the images removed from the board included Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Colin Powell and George Washington Carver — and that an image of former President Barack Obama on his desk was also removed.
"It really floored me," James told the paper. "I've been teaching special education for 15 years, and it just really floored me when she did that."
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After sending the letter to the governor Monday night, James, 61, officially resigned from his post as an exceptional student education (ESE) teacher, teaching students ranging from kindergarten to fifth-grade, Tuesday. It was going to be his first year teaching in Florida, the paper said.
According to the paper, Smith said that teachers are allowed to decorate their classrooms with educational materials and is not aware of any policies in place that would call for the employee's decision to take down the images.
Smith said that the incident, which he called an "anomaly," is being investigated.
James described the person who took down his images as board-certified behavior analyst for the school district.
He explained that ahead of the new school year, he had spent $58 of his own money on supplies to decorate the board that would hang behind his desk.
James said the behavior analyst and another behavior coach came into his classroom to help set up on Monday.
"That is kind of unusual, but that's OK," James told the paper. "They came in, and we started moving tables around and swapping some out, and I had made the bulletin board a couple of days earlier."
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He said as he was tending to another task he looked up to see the woman taking something down off the bulletin board, which was also decorated with a copy of the Pledge of Allegiance.
When he asked her what she was doing, "she said something along the lines of it wasn't age appropriate. Something like that," James remembered.
He told the paper that while he does not remember her mentioning race at the time, he noted that she also grabbed the photo of Obama that was on his desk as it did not fit up on the board.
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"She picked it up and said, 'You don't need to put this up either,'" he recalled to the paper. "She said — I can't remember exactly what she said — but she said, 'the kids are too young' or something like that. It floored me. I thought, 'This is the first Black president.'"
He said at first he let it go and was not sure how to proceed though after giving it more thought he got more upset.
"I could have just sent it to the principal," he said. "But things need to get done. A lot of times people can just sweep things under the rug."
In a statement provided to the paper, Escambia County Public Schools spokesperson Cody Strother said in a statement on behalf of the school said they were made aware of Smith's resignation Tuesday and are investigating the incident.
"Our office was made aware of this employee's resignation and his stated reasons for resigning very early this morning, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022," the statement read. "Around the same time, we were copied on an email written by this individual and released to the Governor's Office and various media outlets before we had any opportunity to investigate. We are now in the process of conducting a full investigation. If these allegations are deemed factual, we will certainly take corrective action, as it is our aim that all of our teachers feel valued and supported."
Strother did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
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