TIFTON – A Tift County Schools teacher who posted comments on social media related to the Ferguson, Missouri riots, has been suspended without pay for five days.

Kelly Tucker, a middle school teacher at the 8th Street Middle School in Tifton, made a comment on Facebook about the events in Ferguson.

In a report from WALB, the text of the post was published:

“Its turned into a race matter. What about the thugs that beat the father in his vehicle because he didn’t slow down? What about the thugs that shot the college baseball player because they were bored? The list can go on and on. If the dude hadn’t have stolen, he would be alive. I think signs should read, take the hood off your head and pull up your dang pants and quit impregnating everybody. I’m tired of paying for these sorry [expletive] thugs. I would much rather my hard earned money, that the government takes, go to people who need it, such as abusive adults with children. Not to mention the animals that they beat and fight too. That’s all I’m saying.”

The decision, announced Wednesday, comes after the Tift County school board met over a period of several days.

According to the report, the board’s attorney stated that the post went “viral” and was “offensive, violating the code of ethics for educators”.

Attorney for Tucker noted that the post was taken from a string of posts and didn’t specifically mention race.

In spite of Superintendent Patrick Atwater saying in the report that, beyond this incident, Tucker “was a great teacher,” the board decided to take decisive action in suspending Tucker as a result of her comments in a private social media post.