Woke Portland school board says unreliable dance teacher can't be fired because he's black

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

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Portland's woke school board has refused to fire a black dance teacher
caught ringing in sick to take private lessons and judge a contest - after
claiming that doing so would be racist.

School board members who lost a 4-3 vote to keep Damon Keller working at
Ockley Green Middle School slammed last week's result as 'extraordinarily
troubling'.

Keller repeatedly pretended to be sick so he could skip work for his side
gig teaching dance lessons.

After being told his contract wouldn't permit him to take Wednesdays off
to teach private lessons, Keller rang in sick on the day multiple times.

He's also accused of ringing in sick after his request for unpaid leave so
he could judge a dance contest in North Carolina was turned down. Keller
ended up attending that contest and judging.

His behavior led to a furious clash with school officials that led
headteacher Julie Rierson and superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero to move to
fire him, The Oregonian reported.

But board member Michelle DePass admitted she'd spared Keller from being
fired because of his race. DePass, who is black, told the vote meeting:
'The district has been documenting Keller for eight years. They’ve been
waiting for him to mess up.

'I have never experienced a white person being scrutinized like that over
that length of time and then dismissed. We shouldn’t hold black people to
a higher standard of conduct than everyone else.'

The successful votes of DePass and three other board members - two of whom
were black, with one being white - were blasted by fellow board member
Andrew Scott.

He countered: 'I have never heard comments that race-based in this type of
a setting. We created a future lawsuit in that moment...It was
extraordinarily troubling.'

Keller will be disciplined over his absences, although details of his
punishment have not been shared.

The teacher - hailed as an extremely talented man whose former students
have gone on to dance with Justin Bieber and Rihanna - has a history of
disciplinary issues including physical misconduct involving students and
neglect.

However, Keller's students reacted with anger to his firing and staged a
walkout in April to protest against losing one of the only black educators
at the school.

They also claimed plans to fire him were racist.

Following the student walkout, a public hearing was requested by Keller,
which saw school board members face off over whether sacking the black
dance teacher would be racist.

In the end, the 4-3 vote came down to a tiebreaker vote from one white
school board member, who was forced to side either with three white
members voting to dismiss Keller, or three black members trying to keep
him on.

Portland is notorious for being one of America's most progressive cities,
with many of its residents and public officials proudly proclaiming their
hard-left credentials on issues such as race and gender identity.

And while Keller is one of the only black teachers at Ockley Green Middle
School, his student cohort is 60 percent black, Latino or multiracial,
according to Oregon Live.

During his hearing, one Ockley Green Middle School parent said he serves
'as a rare African-American male role model' for students in the largely-
white area.

Many complained after the move to fire Keller that his loss would be
especially upsetting for black students, despite a lengthy rap sheet of
disciplinary issues.

His seven-years at the school have reportedly seen a number of behavior
issues, including in March 2016 when he allegedly shoved a student to the
ground after a dodgeball game.

He claimed after that it was an involuntary reflex after the student hit
him when he was expecting a high-five.

In 2018, he also reportedly faced allegations he threw shoes at students
to get their attention, and harangued students for changing their
menstrual products while trying to hurry them to class.

In 2021, the state Teacher Standards and Practices Commission put him on a
two-year probation for 'gross neglect of duties' following an
investigation.

At the time, Keller didn't challenge the allegations levied against him,
but insisted it was only because he wanted to keep his job.

While still on probation in spring 2022, a fight also reportedly broke out
when he stepped out of his class to talk to a student without
authorization, leading to him being suspended for a week. When he
returned, he asked to take Wednesday afternoons off to teach private
lessons - the issue that led to last week's vote.

One of the issues at the heart of the controversy is the high turnover of
principals at Ockley Middle School, with current administrator Julie
Rierson beginning last fall as the third leader in three years.

When Keller asked to take time off every week for his private lessons,
Rierson refused, citing his union contract barring teachers from working
second jobs on school time.

Despite being turned down, an investigation found that he went anyway, but
attempted to disguise it by calling in sick.

When he was brought up over the obvious pattern, he reportedly tried to
change the time off to unpaid leave.

In March, he again infuriated school officials by flying to North Carolina
to act as a paid judge for a dance competition, also on school time.

Keller claimed he was ill and didn't go to North Carolina until school was
done Friday evening, but failed to produce flight records proving this. An
official at the dance event reportedly told school officials he was there
the entire day.

When Rierson moved to fire him, Guerrero agreed.

But with all school boards needing to sign off on sacking certified
educators under Oregon law, the public hearing ensued.

Andrew Scott, one of the school board members who voted to approve
Keller's dismissal, told Oregon Live he initially saw the hearing as an
open-and-shut case.

He felt that he had clearly breached his union contract, lied to his
bosses, and been paid double while students missed out.

But he was furiously challenged at the hearing by black school board
members, who argued that racial discrimination has a long history in job
firings.

'Disciplinary action is disproportionately meted out by race,' said
Michelle DePass, whose remarks were slammed as race-baiting by Scott.

'Scrutiny on black employees in our public institutions falls
disproportionately on black men. Those outcomes impact retirement and end
up in the loss of Black wealth. I think firing is too harsh of a
punishment.'

After school board member Julia Brim-Edwards sided with her black
colleagues and voted to keep Keller, cheers broke out from the audience at
the hearing.

But while students will be pleased they kept their favorite teacher,
principals and school officials expressed concern over the precedent that
had been set.

'The board has some repair work to do with principals so they will know we
will support them in the tough decisions they need to make while they run
their schools,' Scott said.

'The precedent setting nature of this is very concerning to me. We have
limited our ability as a board to terminate future teachers who engage in
similar behaviors.'


--
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