SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Some parents with students in the Springfield Public Schools (SPS) district are in an uproar over Facebook posts and comments from a Maple Elementary school teacher, some of which express anti-Muslim, ableist, and even genocidal rhetoric.
We spoke to a few of those parents on Friday along with district officials about what they want to see happen.
Cheyanne, who agreed to speak with us on the condition of not showing her face or sharing her last name, and whose children attend the elementary school, came across kindergarten teacher Neil Baird’s Facebook page after he commented on an SPS post regarding Monday’s board meeting.
KMTR -{ }Springfield parents demand action over teacher’s disturbing Facebook posts
She says when looking at Baird’s profile, she came across many Facebook posts that concerned her.
“I saw him making comments about students on IEPs [Individualized Education Programs],” Cheyanne told us. “That made me see red. I have a son that’s autistic, and I knew before I hit that point that the school needed to be aware of these posts.”
One post that has since been deleted but was public Thursday, said: “Time for a new crusade. Kill all illegals and Muslims.”
Another one said: “Any illegals in this county need to be kicked out. Any kids they have had here need to go with them. The idea of being born here grants you citizenship only applies if your parents are citizens. If they are not you are illegal and should be sent packing.”
Cheyanne informed the elementary school.
“Because it’s a personnel matter, there isn’t any information that I can share about the status,” said Springfield Public Schools spokesperson Brian Richardson. “What I can say is that we have a Springfield Public School employee who made some posts on their personal social media page. We are aware of those posts, and those posts do not reflect the values here at Springfield Public Schools.”
On the district’s Facebook page, a person shared a message allegedly sent to them by Baird, which read, “Let’s meet up and see how things turn out, maybe post where you work you coward see how your coworkers like it.”
Again, the district acknowledged it was looking into Baird’s post history.
“I found out that the school district knew and nothing was happening,” Cheyanne continued. “That’s when I decided that something needed to happen because parents needed to be made aware of the kind of teacher that was in our kids’ classrooms, because if he’s making these kinds of comments, who’s to say that he’s training all the kids fairly in his class.”
Cheyenne took to Reddit and her post on the issue has received more than 450 replies.
Cheyenne says her goal is to bring attention to the situation and have the school district take action.
“I want to see an investigation done into his classrooms over the last few years. I also don’t want to see them taking it and passing it on to somebody else. They just keep sleeping underneath the rug, but it needs to come out what’s going on in his classrooms.”
SPS has not said whether Baird is on administrative leave or not due to this situation being a personnel matter – which the district does not comment on.
We also reached out to Baird multiple times. He has not responded.