Teacher Fired Over Ferguson Tweets

A veteran teacher in Texas is out of a job after unleashing some volatile tweets about the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo., reports USA Today. The school board in Duncanville yesterday fired Vinita Hegwood, an African-American teacher of English, for messages like this one a week ago: "Who the (expletive) made you dumb duck (expletive) crackers think I give a squat (expletive) about your opinions about my opinions RE #Ferguson Kill yourselves."

When that tweet and others went viral, Hegwood explained that she was responding "impulsively" to "a series of threatening and racist attacks" made against her on Twitter. "My reaction in no way reflects the standards to which I have held myself and my students for the last 20 years of teaching," she wrote in a statement. Hegwood submitted her resignation Thursday, but the board declined to accept it and opted to fire her the next day, reports CNN. Ferguson remains on edge as it awaits a grand jury decision about the police shooting. (More teacher stories.)