An El Paso teacher is facing termination after she was recorded seemingly telling her students to refer to pedophiles as “minor-attracted persons.”
Students present in the classroom claimed the teacher was speaking sarcastically in furtherance of a class lesson. However, the El Paso Independent School District’s Board of Trustees still placed her on leave pending termination.
In the 18-second video posted to TikTok on August 29, the teacher can be heard saying, “Stop calling them that. You’re not allowed to label people like that. Stop it, Diego.”
“We are not going to call them that. We’re going to call them MAPs — Minor Attracted Persons. So don’t judge people just because they want to have sex with a 5-year-old,” she said.
The acronym “minor-attracted person” or “MAP” refers to adults who are “preferentially attracted to underage youth.”
The El Paso Teachers Association identified the teacher as 53-year-old English teacher Amber Parker of Franklin High School.
After the video went viral, El Paso ISD became aware of the incident.
El Paso ISD trustee Daniel Call posted to his Facebook page, “I normally try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but this is where I draw the line. Pedophilia is sick and is always wrong, no politically correct acronym can make it right.”
The term MAP has previously been criticized for destigmatizing pedophilia.
Mike McDonnell, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and leader of the Pennsylvania Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, stated, “Minor attracted individual absolutely is a slap in the face to sexual abuse victims globally.”
He continued, “We were victimized. We were targeted by predators who had groomed us and who had used us as their bait and as their play. That is the crime and it needs to remain named a crime.”
Call ended up dating his post, though, writing, “Update on my last post; After hearing from some of the students that were in the class, including my own nephew, I believe now that the teacher that appeared to be promoting and normalizing pedophilia was pretending to advocate a position she didn’t actually believe in order to challenge the students in preparation for them reading the book The Crucible.”
The Crucible is a 1953 play by Arthur Miller that dramatizes the Salem Witch Trials that occurred in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692-93 and was intended to be an allegory for McCarthyism.
Call continued in his post, “The video that many of us saw was missing this important context. I regret the negative attention that this situation has brought on this teacher and wish her well. I’m told she is a great educator.”
Both of Call’s posts appear to have since been deleted.
Ryann Ruvalcaba, a student who claims to have been in the classroom when the incident occurred, said, “[Parker] was expressing how it was ridiculous how we might not be able to call people pedophiles. That we will probably have to start calling them MAPs because it can be offensive to [pedophiles]. The class agreed.”
El Paso ISD launched an investigation into the incident, and then, at a special school board meeting on September 6, the trustees voted unanimously to initiate termination proceedings.
“Any allegation of potential misconduct is investigated thoroughly, and the safety of our students is a top priority,” stated a school board spokesperson.
Board President Al Velarde said this is “really the beginning of the process” and that the next step is “an appeals process governed by the Texas Education Code.”
“The investigation has been completed,” he added, “But there is a process defined by the TEA that we must follow when it comes to the termination of an employee.”
Following the vote, Call stated, “Initially I was shocked and horrified when I saw the video. Then when I heard she was trying to be sarcastic, I felt bad for her.”
He continued, “However, when the district’s investigation into this situation helped me understand the full story, I have no doubt that terminating this teacher was the right thing to do … Any reasonable person that heard the results of the investigation would vote to terminate her.”
Parker is currently on paid administrative leave pending termination.
For more Dallas crime-related news, see how Dallas City Councilmember Chad West of District 1 was named The Dallas Express’ Crime Boss of the Month for July 2022.