Lilian White: Texas Charter School Teacher Fired For Refusing To Stop Wearing Black Lives Matter Mask

A Texas charter school teacher was fired for refusing to stop wearing a Black Lives Matter mask. Lillian White was terminated from Great Hearts Western Hills about a week before students returned to class because she attended in-person training sessions with homemade face coverings printed with the phrases, “Black Lives Matter” and “Silence is Violence,” reported KENS-TV. The school’s headmaster, Matthew Vlahovich, told her she no longer had a job because she planned to continue wearing a mask that says Black Lives Matter, despite being told that the mask was against the charter network’s dress code. “We deeply respect your convictions, and we sincerely wish you well in whatever advocacy you might choose outside the school,” Vlahovich wrote, according to a copy of the email White posted online. “However, the organization maintains a dress code in order to sustain a scholastic culture of learning in which students and faculty participate together across time.” According to White, Great Hearts added mask restrictions to its dress code policy after school administrators asked her to start wearing a different mask. “I didn’t think it was going to be an issue at all. I guess that’s pretty naive of me,” White said. “But I didn’t think at my school (wearing a Black Lives Matter mask) was going to cause this brouhaha.” White believes human rights is a topic that should be promoted at school. She believes the headmaster is making excuses to not promote human rights. She told KENS: “This is human rights and it should be something that is promoted at our school. It’s an excuse to not talk about it by saying this is politics, talk about it on your own time. It’s just an excuse because they’re uncomfortable with the conversation.” Personally, I don’t understand why people try to avoid politics when everything is political especially after you graduate high school. It’s important to have these conversations so we can really create change.

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