A high school teacher says he was fired after an active shooter drill inspired him to have students write their own obituaries.
Jeffrey Keene, who taught psychology at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida, gave the assignment the same day an “active assailant” drill was scheduled to take place on campus, according to a post on his Facebook page.
The lesson included a segment where students were asked to write their own obituary as if it were “your last day alive,” according to a photo of his lesson plan.
He was fired on April 4, according to a letter from the principal posted on Keene’s Facebook page.
Students were also asked to write a reflection paper on their “perception” of the drill as it was happening and answer questions about their thoughts on topics including:
—“Why (is) the United States having so many mass shootings?”
—“What kind of positive actions can we ... take to decrease the number of mass shootings?”
—“How, if at all, has this ‘mass shooting epidemic’ affected you as a person in your plans for your future?”
Keene wrote on Facebook that he gave the assignment to his first-period psychology class for sophomores, juniors and seniors.
“Some were upset (and) went to their counselors,” he wrote. “Are we (our public schools) at a point where it’s more important to ‘not offend’ a student … vs. preparing them for the world in which we live (?)”
A spokesperson for Orange County Public Schools, which oversees the high school, said in a statement to McClatchy News that the district could not comment on employee matters, but confirmed that a teacher from the high school had been fired after giving an “inappropriate assignment about school violence.”
The teacher was a “probationary employee,” the statement says.
Keene told Fox 35 that he has been a teacher since 2008 and employed with Orange County since January. He is appealing his termination, according to the outlet.
Keene did not return a request for comment from McClatchy News on April 6.
Keene told Fox 35 during an interview that he “didn’t do anything wrong.”
He also told the outlet that he put a “disclaimer” on the bottom of the lesson that said it was not intended to “upset” the students.
When asked if he would give the assignment again, he said, “absolutely,” according to the interview.
“I was stunned,” he said of his termination. “I’m talking to students about the world they live in, about gun safety and active shooters.”
According to the Florida Department of Education, active shooter safety drills must be conducted “at least as often” as other emergency drills, such as those conducted for fires and natural disasters.
But some organizations, including the group Everytown for Gun Safety, a national nonprofit advocating for gun policy reform, have criticized active shooter drills and said they can have a traumatic effect on students and faculty members. Ninety-five percent of schools in America drill students on lockdown procedures in the event of a shooting, according to the group.
A report released by Everytown Research & Policy in 2020 found that active shooter drills in schools were associated with a nearly 40% increase in depression among students. “Concerns over death” increased by 22% after a drill and words including “blood, pain, clinics and pills” were detected consistently in social media posts in school communities during the 90-day period after a drill.
“Everytown does not recommend these drills for students, and believes schools should carefully consider these impacts before conducting live drills that involve students,” Everytown’s website says.
There were 89 documented school shootings through the first three months of this year, according to K-12 Deep Dive. The most recent high-profile school shooting occurred on March 27 at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, and took the lives of three adults and three children, according to the Associated Press.
In 2018, 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida, about 200 miles southeast of Orlando.
