Northside English teacher suspended without pay, rehiring uncertain

A Northside High School English teacher placed on administrative leave in February after complaints of racism regarding a quiz question has been given a 90-day suspension without pay. It is unclear if the teacher will be rehired after the 90 days.

The Fort Smith Public Schools (FSPS) Board of Education voted 6-1 on Monday (March 31) to suspend Robert Taylor without pay for 90 days, beginning immediately. That 90 days will take him past the end of his contract with the district, which is for Aug. 6, 2024, to May 30, 2025.

The decision was announced following a public hearing requested by Taylor regarding a letter recommending his termination sent by the district. School board member Lynette Lott voted against the motion for suspension. Dalton Person, board president, said there is nothing that states whether Taylor’s contract will or will not have to be renewed.

The district released a statement Feb. 13 stating it had been informed of an incident in which Taylor used inappropriate and offensive language in a classroom test at Northside High School.

“The use of such language — whether in speech, writing, or any other form — is completely unacceptable and does not reflect the values of the district,” the statement noted. “FSPS is taking immediate action to address the situation. The district is committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and inclusive learning environment for all students and staff. FSPS sincerely apologized to Northside students, families, and the community for this incident and the harm it may have caused.”

A photo of the test question was posted multiple times on social media. The question asked what literary device was used in a quoted phrase from the book “Warriors Don’t Cry” by Dr. Melba Patillo Beals, an American journalist and educator and one of the Little Rock Nine. The quote used the full word of a racial slur without using asterisks or blacking out any letters.

In an interview with Little Rock television reporter Daniela Dehaghani of KATV, Beals said Taylor should not be punished, and that he was helping educate young people about the history of racism.

Taylor told Talk Business & Politics that the lesson he was using from “Warriors Don’t Cry” used very sensitive words, which he warned his students of before they started. The questions used in the text were supplied by an artificial intelligence program called MagicSchool, which Taylor was encouraged to use and taught how to use during professional development, he said.

“Unfortunately, I did not have time to review the questions as I was preparing an additional assignment required by our literacy coordinators on ACT prep,” Taylor said the day he was placed on leave. “I regret the use of the word in the question, but only tried to provide our teenagers with an idea of how one teen values education, and how much she had to fight to get one.”

During the Monday hearing, Taylor said had he had time to properly review the questions on the test, he would have kept the quote as it was but changed the answer to “charged language.” He told Susan Kraftt, a school board member, that he would not have used asterisks or otherwise blacked out any part of the word.

“I wanted to use the words of the text. I wasn’t going to censor that,” Taylor said.

During his defense, his attorney, Joey McCutchen, said Taylor’s personnel file showed no recorded complaints in his 23 years with the district, and there are no records of prior grievances or complaints against him. Taylor has taught English at Northside for 23 years.

Marshal Ney, an attorney representing the school district, noted Taylor received training on the AI program MagicSchool, which noted that it was to be used as an aid, not as a substitute. The training specifically stated that teachers should always check for bias and accuracy in what it produced.

Taylor said while he input all the information into the program and told the program what questions to ask, he “did not get to spend enough time to go deep into the review. But I did see every question was accurate and every question was correct. Every question included words I wanted to include.”

Ney asked if Taylor could have reviewed the information more closely if he had worked outside of his scheduled time. Taylor said he was in a meeting until 4:15 p.m. the day he created the questions and back on duty at 7:45 a.m. and did not look at the paper during his off time.

“I was exhausted,” he said.

Judy Pennington, FSPS director of human resources, testified in the hearing that when she attempted to recreate the question on Taylor’s material using MagicSchool it took multiple tries to get the question Taylor asked and each time, except the first, it gave an additional admonition to make sure the material was reviewed because of sensitive language. She said that even once she got the program to give a multiple choice question asking what part of speech was in the particular quote, the answer Taylor said was the correct one — alliteration — was not listed as an option.

Pennington also said she did not believe the quote actually showed alliteration and that alliteration is not a part of speech covered in state standards.