A Florida teacher is speaking out after he says he was wrongly terminated over an assignment the school deemed to be "inappropriate."
Psychology teacher Jeffrey Keene told Fox 35 Orlando this week that he was notified by the Orange County School District that it was attempting to end his employment at Dr. Phillips High School following a lesson he gave related to a school shooting drill.
"When they said you have the option to resign without violating your contract, I said, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong,’" Keene told the outlet. "I said, ‘If I did, tell me what it is.’ They said, ‘We can’t do that.’ I said, 'In that case, since I don’t know what I did wrong, you can go ahead and terminate me without cause."
The notice from the school came after Keene says he tried to tie a psychology lesson into an upcoming school shooting drill and part of that lesson was asking students to write their own obituaries to reflect on their lives.
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"If they died 24 hours from now, what would they do differently than they did yesterday?" Keene asked. "And that’s to get them to get rid of all the fluff and show them what’s important in the world. It wasn’t to say, 'You’re going to die, and let's stress you out.'"
Keene, who has been a teacher since 2008 and started working at the school in January, said that a student got upset during the first period assignment, although he put a disclaimer at the bottom that said the lesson was not meant to upset them.
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During the next period, a school counselor came to observe the class, and Keene said that supervisor "shut him down" when he began talking to students about what to do if they are in the bathroom during a school shooting.
"I was stunned," Keene said. "I was talking to students about the world they live in, gun safety, active shooters."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the school district confirmed that it deemed the lesson to be "inappropriate" and that he is no longer employed.
"Dr. Phillips High School families were informed that a teacher gave an inappropriate assignment about school violence," the statement said. "Administration immediately investigated, and the probationary employee has been terminated."
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Keene told the outlet that he does not regret teaching the lesson and "absolutely" would do it again knowing the consequences. Keene is also appealing the termination.
