The high-profile police shooting of Breonna Taylor last March was one of the main instances of police brutality that helped ignite the series of nationwide Black Lives Matter protests that took place in the earlier part of quarantine. Shot and killed while sleeping in the bed of her Louisville apartment, widespread criticism of the ethics involved in the case continues to ring high. That being considered, a Georgia high school teacher is fighting to keep her job after she suggested that Breonna caused her own death by hanging around the wrong people.
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Susan McCoy, a forensic science teacher at Pebblebook High School in Cobb County, GA, told her students in a Zoom lecture, “I’m sorry she was killed, but you know, when you hang out with people with guns and shooting, you’re likely to get caught in the crossfire.”
McCoy at one point said, “What’s her name — Breonna something,” and brought up false allegations against Breonna’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, adding she was, “hanging out with the guy who was wanted on charges … and he fired at them, and they fired back.”
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As many people familiar with the case know, Walker was not the person who was wanted on charges when cops broke into he and Breonna’s home. Walker says cops never identified themselves and he fired a shot in self-defense before police returned the fire, striking and killing Breonna.
McCoy has since issued an apology for the statements, saying, “I want to apologize sincerely publicly for things I said today in my class that had to do with something that I was very ignorant about. I’m just heartbroken that I said something so rude and disrespectful.”
She continued, “I should never have talked about something that I didn’t understand and I truly, truly apologize and ask for forgiveness and hope that someday I can have that trust back with my students that I know that I lost.”
School officials have yet to disclose if McCoy will face any disciplinary atcions for making the inconsiderate remarks to the high schoolers.
[via]