Teacher Fired After Lesson About Tolerance Undermined by Lesson About Religion

Mary Wilkey, a third grade teacher from St. Luke's Elementary School in Boston was fired on Tuesday, two days after she admitted to students during a religion class that white people are the world's only pure human race.


Speaking to a small crowd after learning of the school board's decision to dismiss, a tearful and sullen Wilkey pleaded her case to the public.

"I'm not a racist. I swear, I'm really not. It's the curriculum that's at fault here, not me. Based on what I have to teach, what else was I supposed to do? I couldn't lie to the children. They backed me into a corner. It's the curriculum's fault and it's the school's fault."

Wilkey went on to express that she hoped her friends and neighbours would come around to see that she's actually a tolerant and loving person with absolutely no racial prejudices. Based on the reactions of the parents who gathered to hear Wilkey speak, however, that may prove a difficult task.

"I don't believe her, and I can't believe what she taught those kids," said Larry Fischer, who has a daughter in Mrs. Wilkey's third grade class. "I send my kids here precisely to get them away from intolerance and hatred, and now look what happens. It's absolutely despicable that because of this teacher, my daughter might now look at my African-American butler as someone less than human."

The controversy arose during a class on religion, when one of the students latched onto an apparent contradiction with regard to what had been taught previously, during a lecture on tolerance.

"We just finished learning that we should treat people the same, no matter what colour they are or if they like to kiss boys or girls," said one of the students in attendance, Robert Green, adding, "Well, unless they have olive skin and are acting suspiciously. Then we're supposed to call the principal or the report them to the police."

John Meyers, the principal of St. Luke's, assured parents, however, that it was, indeed, Mrs. Wilkey who was at fault and not the school's curriculum. And that any contradiction was Wilkey's own making.

"Once a week, our children receive a lecture about tolerance, it's true," Meyers told reporters in an attempt to clear his school's tarnished name, "This past week, that lecture happened to come immediately before the daily lesson about religion. Sometimes tolerance and the Christian values we teach don't go hand in hand, we all now that. But I expect an adult teacher to be able to fool third-graders into believing otherwise. Or at least avoiding the issue."

But Mrs. Wilkey didn't avoid the issue. Instead, confronted with a perplexing question and suggested answer about Noah and his animals put forth by student Roy Gruber, she reasoned out that, logically speaking, Gruber's racist conclusion was correct.

"She told us about all the pairs of animals that Noah and his wife put on the Ark to make sure they didn't go extinct," Gruber explained, "and that every other person and animal died because God was angry and flooded the world. But in all the pictures of Noah I've seen, Noah and his wife are white. So I started thinking about where black people came from, because I know two white people can't make a black baby."

Wilkey said she was astounded by Gruber's comments, as well as by his critical thinking and ability to deduce facts.

"Roy suddenly raised his hand while I was teaching, and asked me if I knew where black people came from. I said that they came from the same place as white people. But that didn't please his curiosity, so he pointed out to the class that since both Noah and his wife were white, it would be impossible for them to have sex and produce babies that weren't white."


"I didn't think what I said was bad," Gruber later told a hearing set up to decide the fate of Wilkey's teaching position, "I mean, I think it makes a lot of sense that either Noah had sex with a female monkey or a male monkey had sex with Noah's wife to make black babies from which we have black people today. I like monkeys, but why should I treat someone who's only half human the same way as someone who's one hundred percent human?"

Although Gruber was told never to repeat what he said, he was not reprimanded by the school board or disciplined in any way.

"I don't believe in punishing students for speaking their minds," Principal Meyers told the same hearing, "No, I think it's the responsibility of the teacher for making sure that students only exercise their free speech in accordance with what we already know is good and right. Obviously, what Roy Gruber said was preposterous and hurtful. But I think he knows that now and has learned his lesson. In the future, I believe Roy will make sure to apply himself to problems only when their solutions reinforce what we're trying to teach him."

Saving her most stern words for the principal himself, Wilkey spent the last moments of her press conference by criticizing the school's strict rules regarding how religion is taught.

"I'm supposed to uphold the idea that the Bible is the word of God, and that it's therefore infallible," Wilkey said, "That's something this school feels strongly about. It's rule one according to Principal Meyers, and it's against regulations to break it. So, unable to question the validity of the Noah story, I had to assume it was literally true, and then reason out a conclusion. Based on that assumption, Roy Gruber's conclusion was as accurate as anything else I could think of."

However, even with Wilkey's firing, St. Luke's Elementary remains in a state of unease, with some parents still threatening to transfer their children to other schools. The problem, most parents say, is that they've simply lost faith in St. Luke's reputation as an inclusive and caring institution.

"I send my kids to St. Luke's to learn that skin colour is meaningless, and that Christians of all colours will eventually be accepted into Heaven," one parent wrote in a letter published by the Boston Globe, "And if they can't learn that at St. Luke's, then just what are they going to learn there, math?"