There has been a recent petition going around to remove Ron Johnson from his role as educator at the Austintown Middle School. It claims he has a long history of racism in the classroom and tries to instill these ideas into the minds of his students.

They said he supports the Ku Klux Klan because he dresses up as their grand wizard Bedford Forrest. Bedford Forrest was also a general in the confederate army who Mr Johnson reenacts as in Civil War reenactments, not as the Ku Klux Klan member. Mr Johnson has also not done any wizardry stuff that a grand wizard in the Klan would do, and there are no claims he burns crosses in his classroom. So their claims he supports the klan is blasphemy. 

They also said he has a confederate flag and dresses up in confederate uniforms for class. This is true, but he also has flags from every other time period from American history in his classroom and dresses up for every time period in our history. By doing this he made a boring subject somewhat enjoyable.

One claims that he made them sit under the confederate flag when they were the only black person in the class. We do not denounce that as untrue, but as a mere coincidence because you change seats quite frequently in his class.

They also highlighted that he boasts about negative subjects in his classroom but he teaches American history. Most of American history is centered on racial prejudice and racism. It is his job to teach his students the negative aspects of our history.

This petition is not for supporting racism, for we as a community need to work to stop racism in our community and country, but as a way to help show that Mr Johnson is simply a man who appreciates his heritage and enjoys his job of teaching kids.