Teacher in Viral Video Telling Students Not to “Judge” Child Predators for “Wanting to Have Sex” with Children Fired by Texas School Board

A teacher heard in a viral video telling students not to “judge” pedophiles for “wanting to have sex” with children has been fired.

Amber Parker was fired as an English teacher from Franklin High School for telling student to call pedophiles “MAPs” – or “Minor Attracted Persons” – a term that softens and redefines the word pedophile.

“You’re not allowed to label people like that. Stop it, Diego. We’re not gonna call them that,” The 53-year-old teacher could be heard saying in the 18-second video. “We’re gonna call them MAPs, minor attracted persons. So don’t judge people just because they wanna have sex with a five-year-old.”

VIDEO:

Some students who were in the classroom said Amber Parker’s comments were taken out of context.

At first Daniel Call, the Vice President of the El Paso ISD Board of Trustees defended Parker and said her remarks were taken out of context because she was preparing her students to read The Crucible, KFOX14 reported.

Amber Parker’s husband Jason Parker thanked Daniel Call for supporting his wife in a Facebook post last week, KFOX14 reported.

“Mr. Daniel Call I happen the be the husband of the teacher in question. I can tell you that we were shaken to the core about these accusations. It is both scary and disturbing that that an edited 18 second clip could destroy a 30 year career when taken completely out of context. She is exemplary as a teacher and truly cares about the students. Needless to say we have spent many sleepless nights because of this cruel release to social media of the 18 seconds. We pray that you and the rest of the board will see this for what it is and not allow and edited video destroy an innocent woman, her career and her family in the process. I want to thank you personally for the updated post to begin to right this wrong.”

However, upon further consideration, Amber Parker was eventually fired.

My San Antonio reported:

The El Paso ISD school board announced the firing of a teacher at Franklin High School on Tuesday, September 6, after she was recorded saying that students should call pedophiles “minor-attracted persons,” or MAPs. The school board authorized unanimously that the superintendent start the termination process of teacher Amber Parker, reported El Paso station KVIA.

School board president Al Velarde said at the Tuesday meeting that the investigation into the incident was complete but the district had to follow a termination process set out by the Texas Education Agency.

KVIA reports that parents found the remarks “concerning,” but one person on social media claiming to be a student said that the teacher’s remarks were taken out of context and was used as an example to teach kids about The Crucible.

An El Paso ISD board member, Daniel Call, echoed the claim in a post to his Facebook page on August 31, saying Parker 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 said his own nephew was in the class.