A canned Florida high school teacher claims he “didn’t do anything wrong” when he had students write their own obituaries during an active shooter drill.
Psychology teacher Jeffrey Keene, who is appealing his termination from Dr. Phillips High School, told Fox 35 he wanted to teach students how to stay safe during an emergency drill while also tying in lessons from his class.
“If they died 24 hours from now, what would they do differently than they did yesterday? And that’s to get them to get rid of all the fluff and show them what’s important in the world,” Keene said of his lesson.
“It wasn’t to say, ‘You’re going to die, and let’s stress you out.'”
Keene, an educator of 15 years, said a student had gotten upset at the course at the start of the day, prompting him to include a disclaimer stating, “This is in no way to upset you.”
He claimed that by his second class of the day, a supervisor came to observe him and shut down his lesson when he asked students what they would do if they were in the restroom during an active shooter situation.
“I was stunned,” he said.
“I was talking to students about the world they live in: gun safety, active shooters.”
Keene then received a notice from the Orange County School District, letting him know that he could either resign from his position or be fired.
“I said, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong,’” he protested.
“I said, ‘If I did, tell me what it is.’ They said, ‘We can’t do that.’ I said, ‘In that case, since I don’t know what I did wrong, you can go ahead and terminate me without cause.'”
The school district said it was unable to discuss the specific details of the case as Keene is appealing his termination.
A spokesperson for the district said in a statement: “Dr. Phillips High School families were informed that a teacher gave an inappropriate assignment about school violence. Administration immediately investigated, and the probationary employee has been terminated.”
Keene’s lesson plan comes as the nation reels in the wake of the Nashville school shooting, which saw three elementary school students and three faculty members gunned down by a former pupil at the city’s Covenant School.