California teacher threatens to kill protester in front of little daughter who sobs 'I'm scared' in viral video
BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA: A second-grade teacher is being investigated after she was caught in a video threatening to kill a peaceful protester last week, in front of the latter's 8-year-old daughter.
A woman named Erika Baze had taken her daughter to one of the protests against racial injustice and police brutality on Friday, June 5, following the death of George Floyd. They were walking peacefully in the protest when Carrie Maxwell, who teaches at Wayside Elementary School, jumped in front of the duo, who were both white, and yelled at them before whipping out her phone and recording their exchange. "Do not film my daughter!" Baze yelled, to which Maxwell responded, "I'll f**king kill you" before she was dragged away from the scene by her shirtless husband.
"Do you see what you did to a child? Good job!" Baze shouted at Maxwell as her daughter Kimberly burst into tears. "Get a job!" Maxwell yelled back. Baze could not believe that Maxwell was continuing the violent interaction even though she had clearly seen Baze's daughter was distraught. "Really? You just traumatized a child for walking. Look at this! Are you proud?" Baze said to her.
She then had to quickly reassure her crying daughter that everything was going to be alright. As her red-headed daughter cried, "I'm scared!" Baze told Kimberly, "She's not killing anyone, babe."
You can watch the video here.
The video was posted by Baze on Twitter and soon went viral, gaining over 2.7 million views and 15,300 shares. Maxwell was identified by some of the Twitter users, who provided the email address to her school's principal. The Bakersfield City School District has since started an investigation against her. On June 10, the Bakersfield City School District Superintendent Doc Ervin, released the following statement:
"The Bakersfield City School District strives to be a model of inclusion and equity for our students, staff, families and community members. The District is aware of the incident that occurred on June 5, 2020 involving an employee. We do not condone nor endorse the action and behavior captured on the video. The District is currently conducting an investigation into the incident. As this is a confidential personnel matter, we are unable to comment any further."
While apologizing for her actions through her lawyer, Maxwell said that she panicked after hearing protesters chanting obscenities near her home and was afraid for the safety of her autistic son and elderly mother whom she cares for. "I am humiliated by my actions. I called the police and was told there was nothing they could do. I went out to ask the protesters to move the protest away from my home. This was not shown on the video that was posted," Maxwell said. She also regretted the fact that she might now be perceived as racist despite 12 years of teaching students of color.
Baze said that she was not ready to accept Maxwell's apology. "As much as I would like to accept an apology, I do not see this as a legitimate apology. This is a press release from a lawyer that Ms. Maxwell has secured, full of excuses for Ms. Maxwell’s behavior. The lawyer sent the statement to every news station, but at no point in the statement was an apology directed at me or my daughter. This statement was issued days after the altercation, and only after her place of employment asked to speak with me and the news shared the video," she said, as reported by Bakersfield Now.