Florida students fed up with ‘libertarian’ teacher who tries to ‘trigger’ them with pro-Confederacy views

Students at a nearly all-minority school have had enough of a self-described libertarian teacher displaying a Confederate banner and defending the slave-owning nation's cause.

The head of a nonprofit group that represents charter schools said the teacher displays the banner, which shows the Confederate flag and the slogan, "Keep It Flying," in the classroom of his advanced-placement American history course at Mater Academy in Hialeah Gardens, reported the Miami New Times.

Current and former students told the newspaper the flag was placed on the wall as part of a lesson, but the unidentified teacher tried to antagonize them with right-wing views and defending the Confederacy as fighting for "states' rights" and insisting the North "should have lost" the Civil War.

"If it would have been any other teacher, I would have given him or her the benefit of the doubt," said one former student. "But coming from him, I really think he was just trying to 'trigger' kids. He legit used to call us 'snowflakes' all the time. He was really open about being a libertarian."

School principal Jose Nuñez told the New Times that students were warned in advance that classroom subject matter would be provocative, and that the teacher would show the Confederate flag to spark debate.

"Traditionally, lessons about World War II often times show a swastika," he said. "Lessons about the Holocaust feature images of the concentration camps; and discussions of the slave trade feature harrowing images of the oppression of slavery. The image of the flag was used in this context."

Nuñez said the flag was shown alongside pictures of civil rights heroes as part of a lesson on the evils of racism and intended to put the flag's history into context.

"As writer and philosopher George Santayana said, 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,'" the principal said. "The flag is not part of the classroom’s regular decor, and not representative of the sentiments of the school or teacher but rather used as an educational tool. "