A high school teacher in Florida was forced to remove a poster of Colin Kaepernick, after several people in the community called the art work “offensive.”
The teacher, Alissa Perry of Port Charlotte High School, had displayed the poster in honor of Black History Month. However, after receiving several complaints, an emotional Perry was forced to take it down.
According to the Hill:
Michael Riley, a spokesman for the Charlotte County School District, told the magazine that Perry’s poster prompted ‘somewhat of a disruption’ around the school’s campus and an outpouring of criticism from many in the local community.
‘When the poster was put up, several students posted it to social media. This caused somewhat of a disruption at the school,’ Riley told People. ‘Colin, whether he intended to by his kneeling protest, has become a very controversial, decisive personality.’
‘If you recall, our President stated that he disrespected our nation and our flag, asking citizens to boycott the NFL and Nike. We also had an equal number in our nation who observed his actions as a silent, peaceful protest against unfair racial treatment,” he continued.
Riley continued, claiming that while the school district was criticized for having the poster up. The district has also received a number of complaints from people angry that they took the poster down.
Our school [is] a microcosm of our society. If we had left the poster up, calls to the school and negative emails to the district would have continued citing their feelings of disrespect for our nation and flag.
Since we have taken it down we have received the same number of calls and many many negative emails. Our hope is that our students experienced this as a learning opportunity and can be ambassadors for a united, United States of America.
Kaepernick, still unemployed by the NFL, has had discussions bout joining both the XFL and AAF. Neither side has been successful in recruiting the former 49er, who reportedly is looking for $20 million.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn