{"id":278882,"date":"2026-05-21T01:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T01:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/278882\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T01:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T01:04:07","slug":"report-florida-teacher-faces-backlash-after-viral-video-shows-her-hanging-black-doll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/278882\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Florida teacher faces backlash after viral video shows her hanging Black doll"},"content":{"rendered":"

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A Hillsborough County middle school teacher has allegedly been removed after a viral video appeared to show her hanging a Black baby doll in her classroom, according to CBS affiliate WTSP-TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The outlet reports that the video was taken by a 14-year-old student at Barrington Middle School in Lithia.<\/p>\n

That footage shows the teacher \u2014 identified by WTSP as 63-year-old Karen Savage \u2014 seemingly tying the doll to a cable connected to her classroom TV.<\/p>\n

The student\u2019s mother, Nina Williams, posted the video to social media earlier this week, and it has since racked up over 1 million views on Facebook<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis art teacher took the time to wrap a charger cord around a Black baby doll\u2019s neck and hang it directly over the classroom television for the entire room to see…\u201d the post reads. \u201cWhen the children called out this blatant, disgusting act of hate and asked why she hung that doll by its neck, she laughed it off. Her excuse to our kids was that she did it \u2018to get their attention.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams claimed that the incident simulated a \u201clynching in the classroom,\u201d with many commenters arguing that the teacher should be fired. Other comments posited that the incident may have been taken out of context, however.<\/p>\n

Regardless, WTSP reported on Tuesday that Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent Van Ayres condemned the incident and confirmed the teacher involved had been removed from campus as the district investigates.<\/p>\n

In addition, WTSP received the following statement from the district:<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Savage\u2019s employment has been terminated, effective immediately, and the incident has been reported to the Florida Department of Education\u2019s Office of Professional Practice Services for any action regarding her teaching certificate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We want to reiterate that we do not tolerate conduct of this nature. We took immediate action and responded swiftly to ensure the situation was handled appropriately.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our school counselors and administrators will continue to be available to meet with any students at Barrington Middle School who have concerns or need additional support.”<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County Public SchoolsBreaking News Alerts<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A Hillsborough County middle school teacher has allegedly been removed after a viral video…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,276,4348,2546],"class_list":["post-278882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-schools","tag-strange-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}