By: Hellen Zaboulani
The Black Lives Matter protests continue full speed ahead, more than 100 days after the killing of George Floyd.
An assistant principal at an upstate high school joined the protests in Rochester, NY, recording the chaos on Facebook Live, in which he screamed, “F–k the police!” As reported by the NY Post, Steven Lysenko, a ninth-grade AP teacher at Spencerport High School in suburban Rochester, said in the video that he was outraged that police were targeting protesters even though “we didn’t do anything but chant and sing,” as per the online video which has gone viral.
“Our peacekeepers ended up shooting pepper spray at us for singing and chanting and telling them what a s—ty-assed job they were doing,” he complained in the video, which was saved and shared on social media. “They can f–k right off, America!” he shouted.
“F–k the police! F–k Rochester Police Department!” screamed the school official while wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt. In the clip, in which Lysenko used profanities freely, he managed to end off with a civil “thank you,” to viewers. Rochester has had four nights of protests after the footage was released of how Daniel Prude was fatally injured after his arrest by Rochester police on March 23rd.
Lysenko’s video started an uproar, which officials at the school addressed in a message Saturday, saying the scandal will be “addressed as a confidential, personnel matter.” “We apologize to our students, parents and community that you had to hear this language from one of our employees,” Spencerport Central School District said in a statement.
The district maintained that it “stands in solidarity in support of racial equality and systemic change” and stressed that “we further stand in solidarity with peaceful protesters.”
“However, when a District employee uses language in public or on social media that does not align with our Code of Conduct or demonstrate appropriate role modeling for students, that is something that we will not condone,” the statement added. “These statements by our administrator have caused disruption within our school community.”
While many parents expressed disapproval of the video and said the language sets a bad example for children, others supported the message.
