NC Senate GOP accuses teachers group of backing cop killers. NCAE says that’s ‘garbage.’
Senate Republicans accused the North Carolina Association of Educators of supporting cop killers on Monday, prompting the group to say Senate leader Phil Berger was spouting garbage.
Tamika Walker Kelly, the president of NCAE, encouraged educators last week to sign a Change.org petition pledging to participate in the Black Lives Matter At School’s “Year of Purpose” program. The program has activities throughout the school year that organizers say are meant to uplift Black students.
On Monday, Berger cited Kelly’s tweet to say NCAE “openly embraces cop-killing terrorist Assata Shakur,” who was convicted in the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper. A quote from Shakur’s autobiography — “it is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to win” — is on the Black Lives Matter at School homepage.
Shakur, originally known as Joanne Chesimard, was a prominent member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, The News & Observer previously reported. After escaping from prison, she fled to Cuba, where she received political asylum.
“Two cops were just targeted for assassination in LA,” Berger, a Republican from Eden, tweeted Monday morning. “Will the @NCAE retract its support for a movement featuring a cop-killer on FBI’s Most Wanted List?”
Berger was referring to how two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were critically wounded Saturday night when they were ambushed in their parked squad car by a gunman, the Associated Press reported.
NCAE says GOP spouting “garbage”
NCAE and Kelly quickly responded Monday.
“@BLMAtSchool is a national coalition organizing for racial justice in education that has nothing to do with the garbage you’re spouting,” NCAE tweeted. “Get your facts straight, Phil.”
The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida. It has gotten even more attention this year with nationwide protests over the killing of Black men like George Floyd by white police officers.
Black Lives Matter at School began in 2016. It’s encouraging teachers to use activities such as writing an “anti-racist action plan for the year” and celebrate different days, including George Floyd’s birthday on Oct. 14.
“Justice for George is a day to remember him and call for the defunding of the police and the redirecting of those funds towards social programs and education,” says Black Lives Matter at School.
Republican says NCAE should apologize
Sen. Deanna Ballard, a Watauga County Republican and co-chair of the Senate Education Committee, said in a press release Monday that “NCAE should withdraw its support, apologize to parents and teachers, and renounce violent attacks on police.”
“It’s despicable that the far-left NCAE would encourage North Carolina teachers to pledge their support for a movement that openly embraces a cop-killing terrorist on the FBI’s most wanted list,” Ballard said in the press release. “Police officers in Los Angeles were just targeted for assassination, and this movement honors a cop-killer.”
But the NCAE was standing its ground Monday.
“If Sen. Berger wants to spend his remaining days in power issuing rambling diatribes belying how truly terrified he is of any type of organized resistance to his conservative agenda, he is welcome to do so,” Kelly said in a statement Monday. “But we all know what desperation looks like, and he need look no further than the end of his own pen to find a ‘credibility crisis.’
“We will continue to affirm that Black Lives Matter, prioritizing the safety of educators and students, and fighting for the public education that all students deserve.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 2:58 PM.
