CINCINNATI — No disciplinary action will be taken against a Cincinnati Public Schools teacher after offensive tweets she posted as a minor recently resurfaced, the district said in a press release.
Last week a Twitter account impersonating Walnut Hills High School teacher Claire Thornberry was created. That account posted screenshots of homophobic and racist posts made by Thornberry nearly a decade ago.
WCPO found the Twitter account at the center of the controversy. It claims to be a student-run account.
Posted on the page are screenshots of tweets made in 2013 and 2014 where the n-word is used 20 times along with a slur commonly used against gay men and lesbians.
One of the screenshots includes a photo posted to Twitter in October 2013 with what appears to be a young Thornberry next to a fellow student with the hashtag "BlackFellaFriday." This post also has the n-word in the caption twice.
Thornberry admitted that the screenshots came from an account that she used while she was in high school.
Thornberry said she was not aware that the posts were still accessible online and she promptly deleted the posts and deactivated her social media accounts, the district wrote in a statement to parents and students of Walnut Hills High School.
She apologized on Wednesday in a letter addressed to the principal and the school community.
"As a young and impressionable teenager, I made mistakes that I regret. The way I spoke in those posts is not acceptable. It does not represent the thoughts or language of my family or upbringing," Thornberry said. "Regardless of whether the words were repeated song lyrics, thoughts of my own or quotes from movies, it is not, and never was okay to speak in that way."
The district said its investigation found no evidence that Thornberry currently uses this language.
"The language she used in these posts is offensive and unacceptable. CPS and Walnut Hills agree with that sentiment," Chambers said. "It is not, however, our practice to discipline or dismiss a teacher for mistakes the teacher made when she was a high school student -- before she became a teacher or employee of Walnut Hills High School."
It's clear many students are not happy with the district's decision.
On Friday, dozens of Walnut Hills High School students staged a walkout. Several students held signs including ones that read, "What about us" and "Hold her accountable."
Shaylin King, a freshman at the school, organized the walkout.
"With this protest, we hope to hopefully get Thornberry out," she said.
King claims that the school's lack of action against Thornberry makes her feel like she doesn't matter as a student.
Whoever runs the account mirrored King's message and recently tagged Cincinnati Public Schools on Twitter saying, "we want her out."
WCPO has decided not to show the archive account due to the sensitive and highly offensive nature of the content.
Thornberry said she hopes that the community will accept her apology.
"I am a different person as an adult than I was as a teenager," she said. "I have learned a lot and grown a lot since I made those posts, and will never use that language again.
The district did not say if it knows who made the "archive account" or why it was made.
Both Thornberry and the district said they hope that students and adults will use this incident as a learning opportunity as proof that our "digital footprint" can impact us long after posts are made.
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