SHLS - How a Picture with a Noose and Four Teachers Led to Public Outcry

Loop rope with slipknot.

Photo courtesy Getty Images

Back in May, four teachers from the Palmdale School District were looking through an old closet for things that could use in the classroom.

As they were looking, they found a noose and they decided to take a picture with it because it had the sentiment for everyone to "hang in there" because everyone was "at the end of their rope". They wanted to share it with fellow staff members.

Well, the picture went public, there was an outcry from the community, and the teachers were placed on leave.

Many parents exhibited frustration at the picture with one saying:

"We trusted you. By God we trusted you. As parents we wake up in the morning every morning and we bring our children to this institution with hope they receive quality education."

Another one said this:

"Now as parents you have left us with not only a heavy heart but the responsibility to sit our children down next to us to explain to them that their ancestors' efforts toward freedom and civil rights is a mere mockery to their teachers and principal. What was so funny? I'd love to hear the punchline that was told before the picture was taken. What was so funny? 400 years of oppression is not a joke to me and nothing to laugh at."

So of course an investigation took place.

The Los Angeles Times reports that after the investigation, the photo was reported to be "ignorant, lacked judgment, and exhibited a gross disregard for professional decorum in a school setting".

The teachers also expressed "extreme remorse" to the ones doing the investigation.

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