Pro-Confederacy Florida Teacher Traumatized By People Thinking He's Racist

He is suing over 'emotional turmoil.'

Last month, you may or may not know, was Confederate History Month in Florida. Manatee Middle School social studies teacher Jonathan Papanikolaou thought he would celebrate the occasion by imposing a bizarre homemade pro-Confederacy video on his students during the morning announcements.

“Good morning, Hurricanes. This is Mr. Papanikolaou. If you didn’t know, April is an officially celebrated month here in the state of Florida named Confederate History Month,” the teacher explained in the video first obtained by ABC7 . “Every year our state celebrates and memorializes that valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during that known as the Civil War, but may be more correctly titled the War To Prevent Southern Independence.”

I assume the "our" comes from his mother's side, given that there were only about six Greek guys in the entire Confederate Army. Either that or, like most Greeks, his family didn't even emigrate here until at least 25 years after the Civil War ended and he's just the kind of guy who is really pro-Confederacy without having any kind of ancestral dog in that hunt.

But wait, it gets worse! He also explained that the war was fought over “slaves and property rights, over taxation and a variety of violations of state’s rights and sovereignty.”

Christine Cooper, a parent whose daughter goes to to the school but is not in Papanikolaou's class, was particularly taken aback by that last one, telling ABC7 that “Personally, as a parent, the words stuck in my head that made me go, ‘Wait a minute’ was slavery and property rights. It was the right to own property and that property happened to be human beings.”

Not that this needs to be said, but the "state's rights" and "sovereignty" at issue during the Civil War was "the state's right and sovereignty to allow people to own other human beings." Which is not a right they should have. Of course, that Papanikolaou actually said the "slaves" part out loud we think might be illegal under current Florida law. He probably didn't get the memo.

The whole thing was pretty appalling and Papanikolaou ended up being investigated by the school after Cooper and other parents and community members complained. The school, being a Florida school, decided that he did nothing wrong by showing the video and that no disciplinary action would be brought against him.

But now, Papanikolaou is filing a countersuit against the school, claiming that the investigation itself (rather than the fact that he showed a video extolling the virtues of the Confederacy) made people think he is racist.

Via ABC 7:  

“The environment caused by the district’s handling of this matter has created a hostile work environment and disrupted the student’s mental psyche and their receptiveness attitude to learn,” Papnikolaou said in the complaint. “I have received questions from staff and students as to why I support slavery and why I am a racist, which has caused me grief and awkwardness in classroom and school exchanges.”

He also said that some students are no longer comfortable being in his class.

“I was also informed through students that a colleague in my school has been “turning” other students against me, as several students now say they are “uncomfortable” to be in my classroom,” he said. “This situation has created emotional turmoil for myself.”

 Emotional turmoil . Can you imagine?

An easy way to avoid the "emotional turmoil" of kids not wanting to be in his class or his colleagues thinking he is racist probably would have been to not make and show a whole video about how Confederate soldiers valiantly sacrificed their lives so that some people could continue owning other people. That might have been a good tactic. People don't usually need a whole investigation to come to the conclusion that anyone using terms like the "War To Prevent Southern Independence" — a fun permutation on the "War of Northern Aggression" I hadn't heard before; always be learning! — might just be super racist.

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