'Blacks' should be 'segregated': Texas elementary teacher fired for Facebook post on McKinney video

Karen Fitzgibbons, a fourth-grade teacher at Bennett Elementary School in Wolfforth, has apologized after writing she was "almost to the point" of supporting racial segregation following a controversial police incident in McKinney. less Karen Fitzgibbons, a fourth-grade teacher at Bennett Elementary School in Wolfforth, has apologized after writing she was "almost to the point" of supporting racial segregation following a controversial police ... more Photo: Frenship Independent School District Photo: Frenship Independent School District Image 1 of / 65 Caption Close 'Blacks' should be 'segregated': Texas elementary teacher fired for Facebook post on McKinney video 1 / 65 Back to Gallery

A teacher at an elementary school near Lubbock has been fired after writing she was "almost to the point" of supporting racial segregation following a controversial police incident in McKinney.

Frenship Independent School District officials fired Karen Fitzgibbons, a fourth-grade teacher at Bennett Elementary School in Wolfforth, for making the controversial post, the district announced in a statement Thursday.

In the since-deleted post, Fitzgibbons decried the Tuesday resignation of McKinney Police Cpl. David Eric Casebolt, shown on video pointing his gun at two unarmed black teenagers and pinning a 15-year-old black girl clad in a swimsuit to the ground outside of a neighborhood pool in McKinney.

"I'm just going to just go ahead and say it...the blacks are the ones causing the problems and this 'racial tension,'" Fitzgibbons wrote in the Facebook post. "I guess that's what happens when you flunk out of school and have no education. I'm sure their parents are just as guilty for not knowing what their kids were doing; or knew and didn't care."

The elementary school teacher continued, "I'm almost to the point of wanting them all segregated on one side of town so they can hurt each other and leave the innocent people alone. Maybe the 50s and 60s were really on to [sic] something. Now, let the bashing of my true and honest opinion begin...GO! #imnotracist #imsickofthemcausingtrouble #itwasagatedcommunity"

RELATED: Texas woman suspended from job after allegedly starting controversial McKinney pool fight"

In a news release, officials said "Frenship ISD is deeply disappointed in the thoughtlessness conveyed by this employee's post. "We find these statements to be extremely offensive, insensitive, and disrespectful to our Frenship community and citizens everywhere. These comments in no way represent the educational environment we have created for our students."

The statement continued, "We hold our employees responsible for their public conduct even when they are not on active duty as district employees. Employees are held to the same professional standards in their public use of electronic media as they are for any other public conduct. This recent conduct was unacceptable."

RELATED: McKinney police officer at center of controversy was sued in 2008 for racial profiling

Fitzgibbons told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that the post "was not directed at any one person or group" and that she "apologized to the appropriate people."

"It was not an educational post; it was a personal experience post," Fitzgibbons told the Avalanche-Journal.

Fitzgibbons isn't the only school official in hot water for making online comments about the McKinney incident: the Associated Press reported that Alberto Iber, principal of North Miami Senior High School in Florida, was removed from his position and reassigned to administrative duties after making a public comment supporting Casebolt on The Miami Herald's website.

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports