March 22, 2024
A former Detroit teacher is preparing for a legal battle against the school she believes fired her for being a rapper.
A former Detroit teacher is preparing for a legal battle against the school she believes fired her for being a rapper.
Domonique Brown was a U.S. history teacher at Taylor Preparatory High School where she was named teacher of the month in December. However, she was recently fired from her job due to an anonymous parent who complained about her rap career, Fox 2 Detroit reports.
Brown had been teaching for seven years while pursuing a master’s degree and aiming for her doctorate. In October, an anonymous parent made a complaint about the music she released under her rap persona “Drippin Honey.” The complaint resulted in five months of meetings with the school where she had to defend her music career.
“The first meeting was with my dean and my principal and they were just telling me, ‘Hey, a parent said that they’ve seen your social media, and that you’re a bad influence because you’re a rapper,’” Brown recalled.
The parent continued to complain about Brown working as a teacher at the school. When Brown asked for a formal complaint in writing, she never received one.
“I was like hey well can we tell that parent to come in and see professionalism, see me in a classroom, see me after school, see me at all the games, see me dropping kids off everyday, buying food?” Brown said. “Can they come see me in my element before they try to say I’m unprofessional in it?”
She calls out the parent and the school for using her personal life to determine whether or not she is fit to teach high school students. Since being fired, Brown released her music video for the single “Drippin 101” which features some of her former students dancing and singing along with her.
“My outside life should not be grounds for termination when it does not interfere with my ability to fulfill my responsibilities as a teacher,” Brown wrote under her latest music video on YouTube.
“My dedication, professionalism, and passion for education have always been unwavering, regardless of any personal pursuits I may have.”
Brown believes she was discriminated against because of her style of music. She says the school was not transparent in why she was being fired and she is now working on hiring a lawyer to take legal action.
“If I was a horrible teacher, y’all would have dropped me the day it was a problem,” Brown said.
The school released a statement standing by their decision to fire Brown who seemingly went against their “distraction-free” learning environment.
“Student well-being remains at the forefront of everything we do, and we will continue fostering a distraction-free teaching and learning environment focused on student success,” the school said.
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