The Houston school board is scheduled to consider a settlement Thursday that would require the resignation of a third-grade teacher accused of making bigoted and anti-Muslim remarks on a public access television show.
Angela Box, who declined to comment Monday, has remained in the classroom at Daily Elementary in west Houston since complaints against her surfaced in mid-November. Houston Independent School District officials previously said they respected First Amendment rights and were handling complaints from parents individually.
But a school board meeting agenda posted Monday includes a possible vote on a resignation and release agreement with Box. Such agreements typically require the employee to resign while the district agrees to pay part or all of the employee’s salary for the rest of the school year.
Box, whose annual salary is $50,100, has taught in HISD since July 2013, teaching at Elmore Elementary in the North Forest area last year before taking the job at Daily.
HISD spokeswoman Holly Huffman said Monday that she could not discuss any possible settlement agreement.
Box, 42, appears as a regular guest on “Tommy’s Garage,” a conservative political talk show.
Council ‘appalled’
Houston community activist Quanell X first called for Box to be fired. The Houston office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations then wrote a letter to HISD Superintendent Terry Grier on Nov. 18 saying it was “appalled” by Box’s comments. In online video clips, she can be seen saying, “I am so sick of the bacon-haters coming here,” and “Can’t Ebola just take one for the team and take out Obama?”
Out of respect for free-speech rights, CAIR-Houston has stopped short of asking HISD to fire Box, said spokeswoman Ruth Nasrullah.
“We didn’t want to impede on that unless we knew that what she was saying on the program is impacting the children in her classroom,” she said.
Higher standards
HISD policy says employees may be fired for comments made on personal social media, but it does not specifically mention other off-duty commentary.
The policy says freedom-of-speech rights “must be exercised responsibly and within the context of the District’s right to maintain and secure an effective and efficient workplace and school operations free from disruptions that detract from the District’s objective of educating children.”
Ibrahim Hooper, national spokesman for CAIR, said certain types of workers such as teachers and police officers should be held to higher standards in their public comments.
“Just ordinary people, you work in a cubicle and you put on Facebook you don’t like Muslims, we don’t like it,” Hooper said. “But you have a First Amendment right to be a bigot if you want.”