ABOVE: Screenshot via KPRC NBC 2.
Parents of middle school students in a Fort Bend County, Texas school are demanding answers after a teacher berated students for a series of chalk drawings on sidewalks on school grounds which featured LGBTQ Pride flags and trans flags.
According to KPRC NBC News 2, the teacher allegedly defaced the student’s drawings, scrawling “Heteros Rule” before telling students to erase their drawings also told students that the symbols and words were inappropriate.
Sartartia Middle School in Sugar Land’s principal Cholly Oglesby sent an email to parents writing;
“We have been made aware of an unfortunate incident involving some of our students who reported an interaction with a teacher, which the students stated left them feeling disrespected and marginalized. Keeping in mind that the safety, health, and social and emotional well-being of our students and staff are always our top priority, we were extremely disheartened to hear about these allegations from members of the Sartartia Middle School community as well as some of our feeder pattern high schools.
“It is my sincere goal to always maintain an atmosphere of honor, inclusion, support and respect on our campus.
“Diversity in our community is to be met with a sense of mutual acknowledgment, understanding and tolerance. I insist that campus leaders, classroom teachers and students exhibit and model this type of behavior without exception. We are exploring opportunities to have a campus-wide event to dialog and foster better understanding, respect, and a healthy co-existence for all members of the Sartartia Middle School community.
KPRC NBC News 2 spoke with several parents. One parent, who did not want to be identified, said her daughter was among several students who experienced the incident.
The student and parent said the supervising teacher told the students to erase the pride flags, and when the students refused, the parent said the teacher acted inappropriately.
“The teacher then threatened to pour a drink on the chalk art, and finally grabbed some chalk and wrote ‘HETEROS RULE’ over the pride flags,” the parent said.
The school district in a statement said, “We are aware of a reported incident involving some of our students at Sartartia Middle School who report an interaction with a teacher, which the students stated left them feeling disrespected and marginalized. We are following our protocols and procedures and are conducting an investigation.
“Keeping in mind that the safety, health, and social and emotional well-being of our students and staff are always our top priority, we were extremely disheartened to hear about these allegations from members of the school community.
“The District requires that an atmosphere of honor, inclusion, support and respect be fostered on all our campuses.
As the issue involves a personnel matter, we cannot comment further.”
