PEABODY –– Last Monday, Sept. 15, Peabody parent Matthew Keen claimed that teachers have been fired due to political speech made outside the classroom via social media. Since then, one teacher has been confirmed to have been removed from his teaching job, and many of Keen’s questions have gone unanswered.
At the time, Superintendent Dr. Josh Vadala had released the following statement:
“Peabody Public Schools has placed two high school teachers on leave for alleged violations of district policies and procedures, including but not limited to inappropriate social media posts following the death of Charlie Kirk. This matter is currently under investigation. We take this very seriously and will respond appropriately. Since this is a personnel matter, I am unable to comment any further at this time.”
Since then, Vadala has released an additional statement, which was provided to The Item on Monday, Sept. 22: “I can confirm that David Polito will not be returning to his position at Peabody High School. We hope to find a qualified replacement very soon.”
The second high school teacher has not been named, as that investigation is ongoing.
Keen said, “The school has in no way spoken with the students whatsoever about why their teacher (Polito) is not there – or even acknowledge that their teacher is not there. In my child’s particular class, they don’t have any instruction. This is… troubling that they haven’t addressed this.”
Keen clarified that, after a few days of Polito’s absence, another teacher began sending his child’s class workbook assignments, and there is a substitute teacher physically present in the classroom during the class.
Keen said that, regardless of what side of the political aisle someone sits on, this is “worrisome that they’re willing to target a teacher either because of their own beliefs or because they are fearful that there’ll be some sort of right wing push against them.”
He added, “Given that they (the schools) provided no information (to parents or students) about what happened, it appears to just be because of a relatively anodyne political post by the teacher, but again, the school isn’t confirming any information, so I don’t know what their motivation was, but it appears to be political.”
Keen said there are many questions he has asked various school faculty that have gone unanswered. He said, “They won’t even confirm whether or not the teacher was fired… It would be good to know the nature of the teacher’s removal – What was the cause for it? – because of the free speech concerns.”
He continued that he was hoping for some reassurance that members of minority groups, whether the individuals be teachers or students, would not be targeted in the future.
“(Polito) made a comment regarding Charlie Kirk. The comment, I think, alluded to Charlie Kirk’s racist commentary and white supremacist ideology… They fired a teacher for saying something that was anti-racist, so one could reasonably infer that they’re not willing to take a stand against racism,” he said.
When considering an ideal way to move forward, Keen asked for transparency.
“A lot of this is contingent on why they actually fired him. There may be some circumstances of this that they have not shared with parents that would make it obvious that that was the correct thing to do. I don’t rule that out,” he said. “So if that were the case, they should definitely share that with parents so that we can leave it alone.
“But if it is purely because of a social media comment, they should obviously reinstate the teacher. But most importantly, they need to do something… to make sure that students are safe, that students won’t be targeted.”
