A Florida teacher was terminated after instructing students to draft their own obituaries in preparation for an active shooter drill.
According to Jeffrey Keene, a psychology teacher at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, say he felt that he exercised good judgement when he gave an assignment to his first period students. After learning about the drill, Keene believed that having the students write their own obituaries would encourage them to contemplate their lives in the event of such a situation.
‘This isn’t a way to upset you or anything like that,'” he recalled. “It wasn’t to scare them or make them feel like they were going to die, but just to help them understand what’s important in their lives and how they want to move forward with their lives and how they want to pursue things in their journey.”
During the second period, students from Keene’s class informed him that they were being questioned by school authorities about the assignment. By the end of the seventh period, he had been dismissed from his position.
“If you can’t talk real to them, then what’s happening in this environment?” Keene added. “In my mind, I’ve done nothing wrong.”
He added, “I don’t think I did anything incorrectly. I know hindsight is 20/20 but I honestly didn’t think a 16-, 17-, 18-year-old would be offended or upset by talking about something we’re already talking about.”
