A school district in Texas announced this week that a teacher was fired for saying that students should refer to pedophiles as MAPs, or “minor-attracted persons.”
The El Paso Independent School District board of trustees voted on Tuesday to approve the district’s superintendent, Diana Sayavedra, to terminate high school teacher Amber Parker’s employment over the remarks, according to USA Today.
Reportedly, Parker was recorded by a student late last month during a lesson in which she told the class to call pedophiles “minor-attracted persons” and saying “don’t judge people because they want to have sex with 5-year-olds.”
"Stop it. We're not going to call them [pedophiles] that," Parker can be heard telling her students in the recording. "We're going to call them MAPs. Minor-attracted persons. So, don't judge people because they want to have sex with a 5 year old."
Texas Teacher is 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 5yr-old” pic.twitter.com/kuJ31caIYv
— Joshua Jered (@Joshuajered) September 1, 2022
The recording circulated parent groups on social media. In a parent Facebook group, some parents reportedly came to Parker’s defense and said the remarks were part of a class debate and that she “does not condone pedophilia.” Kendal Brown Jessup, one of the group leaders, said “pedophilia is indefensible and should not be debated in our classrooms.” The school district then launched an investigation.
On Thursday, Daniel Call, the vice president of the El Paso ISD Board of Trustees explained to local outlet KFOX14 that “there were more things that the public may not know that was included on the closed findings.”
“Any reasonable person that heard what the seven trustees heard would’ve voted to terminate Amber Parker," Call added. "Personal opinions on really sensitive matters don’t belong in the classroom. It’s up to the families to provide education on some of these really sensitive issues. It is not the role of the school district to do that."
Late last year, Allyn Walker, a professor at Old Dominion University, was placed on administrative leave after saying that the word “pedophile” should not be used to refer to adults who are attracted to minors. Walker advocated for the term “MAPs.”
"It’s less stigmatizing than other terms like pedophile," Walker said, according to 13News Now. "A lot of people when they hear the term pedophile, they automatically assume that it means a sex offender. And that isn’t true. And it leads to a lot of misconceptions about attractions toward minors.”
According to Daily Mail, Walker was forced to leave the university over the remarks and was hired shortly after by Johns Hopkins University.