Amber Parker, an English teacher at a Texas public high school, was fired on September 6 by unanimous vote from El Paso’s Independent School District board of trustees for telling her students not to “judge people just because they want to have sex with a 5-year-old.”
THE QUOTE
A classroom recording shows Parker, who taught at Franklin High School, exhorting her class not to use the term “pedophile,” saying, “You’re not allowed to label people like that.”
In the 18-second video clip, which went viral after being uploaded to TikTok and other social media platforms, Parker can be heard saying, “We’re not gonna call them that. We’re gonna call them MAPs, minor attracted persons. So don’t judge people just because they wanna have sex with a 5-year-old.”
- Board of Trustees Vice President Daniel Call responded to claims the footage had been taken out of context by saying, “When I heard that she was trying to be sarcastic, I felt bad for her. However, when the district’s investigation into this situation helped me understand the full story, I have no doubt that terminating this teacher is the right thing to do. Any reasonable person that heard the results of the investigation would vote to terminate her.”
- Parker and her union representative declined to comment to the press.
MEANWHILE
Although “minor attracted person” may not be the preferred terminology of El Paso’s school board, efforts to “destigmatize” sexual attraction to children have recently cropped up in academia and even mainstream media outlets like USA Today.