Sen. Mike Lee Apologizes For Social Media Posts Likening Students’ Desk Shields To Cages
Aug 20, 2020, 8:33 PM | Updated: 9:40 pm
PROVO, Utah — A picture of Edgemont Elementary students sitting at their desks with face masks and “power shields” was originally posted to the school’s Instagram account, and officials with the Provo School District said it was meant to show the community what steps they are taking to keep their students safe this fall.
“We want to show them what’s going on in the schools so that everybody in the community has an idea of how they are learning, and the great things that teachers and students are doing,” said district spokesperson Caleb Price.
Wednesday night, Sen. Mike Lee reposted a screenshot of the picture with disparaging comments. On his Facebook account, he wrote, “What the actual hell? If they’re already wearing masks and distanced, why the need for a ‘power shield’? (By the way, ‘power shield’ = euphemism for ‘cage’). I’m sure that whoever came up with this idea had good intentions, but some ideas prove better on paper than in practice. This is mean.”
His twitter post garnered a lot of interaction with hundreds of likes, comments and retweets.
District officials said they received a lot of negative attention online because of the attention Lee’s posts received.
Sen. Mike Lee tweeted a screenshot of Edgemont Elementary’s Instagram post.
“There were comments that were being directed to the school and that teacher personally,” Price said. ”Just mean nasty comments about the teacher in the school and we didn’t want to allow that to be left up for people to read.”
The school has since taken down the post. They said they had not heard from any parents upset with students being in their picture and that the students were allowed to be photographed.
Parent Erin Goodsell said she reached out to Lee upset that he had shared the photo with his comments, saying, “I, along with many other Edgemont parents I have spoken with, am deeply disappointed in your Facebook post belittling an Edgemont teacher’s efforts to create a safe learning environment … I am primarily writing to demand that you remove that post as it contains images of minors who have not consented to your posting. As an Edgemont parent, I am deeply troubled that you would publicize those photos in that way.”
Lee has since removed his posts and issued an apology.
“It was a mistake on my part to post it, along with my flippant commentary. While I have questions and concerns regarding the seating arrangement … it’s certainly not my place to make decisions rearming what’s best for a particular classroom. My comments ignored that fact, and — while this was not my intent — showed disrespect for the teacher in that classroom, along with parents and other school personnel who might have been involved,” Lee posted Thursday afternoon.
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) August 20, 2020
