Last week, the El Paso Independent School District held a school board meeting and unanimously voted to terminate a teacher in its district. The decision was made on Sept. 6 after students recorded Amber Parker arguing that people who are sexually attracted to children should not be called “pedophiles.”
The cell phone footage went viral last week. In the video, Parker insisted that instead of labeling those individuals pedophiles, they should be called “minor-attracted persons” or MAPs. When the students refused to use her term, she told them to “stop calling them that.” Parker continued to fuss at the Franklin High School students.
“Stop it. We’re not going to call them that,” the teacher said in the video. “We’re going to call them MAPs. Minor-attracted persons. So don’t judge people just because they want to have sex with a 5-year-old,” she added. Although the investigation is complete and the vote was unanimous, Board President Al Velarde said there is a process that must be adhered to by the Texas Education Agency. He noted that, “this is really the beginning of the process.”
According to reports, since the incident, the original video has been removed from TikTok. School board member Daniel Call spoke with local Texas news station KFOX14 about the teacher. He said he was one of the people who participated in the unanimous vote. “There were more things that [were] the public may not know about that was included on the closed findings,” he shared. Call added, “Any reasonable person that heard what the seven trustees heard would’ve voted to terminate Amber Parker.”
According to the outlet, Parker’s husband shared a Facebook post stating that he was saddened by the school board’s decision. “I can tell you that we were shaken to the core about these accusations. It is both scary and disturbing that an edited 18-second clip could destroy a 30-year career when taken completely out of context,” he said.
He continued, “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.”