A one-time substitute teacher who was banned from a Minnesota school district after being accused last month of re-enacting George Floyd’s murder in class has now lost his job as a police officer in western Wisconsin, the city’s mayor said Monday.
Prescott Mayor Robert Daugherty told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the City Council on Monday reached a separation agreement with Steven Dwight Williams, 48, and accepted his resignation effective Friday in lieu of his termination.
Students reported to Principal Sarah Sorenson-Wagner that Williams, teaching on Oct. 14 for the first time at Woodbury High School, wanted them to know about his life as a police officer. According to the district, he put a student on the ground as part of a re-enactment of Minneapolis police actions that led to the murder of Floyd in May 2020.
Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, contributing to Floyd’s death. Chauvin and three other Minneapolis officers were convicted and sentenced to prison in connection with Floyd’s death.
In addition, Williams mimicked holding a gun and pointing it at students, stated police brutality is not real, told sexist jokes and engaged in “inappropriate and racially harmful behavior” during English classes for sophomores and seniors, according to a letter Sorenson-Wagner sent to parents.
The statement added that Williams had been in law enforcement for many years in his native Wisconsin and Montana and had been on the Prescott force for about two years. He was immediately put on administrative leave from the Prescott force after the allegations.
In March of this year, Williams was granted a three-year, short-term substitute teacher’s license for all grades, according to state records. Following Williams’ alleged conduct at Woodbury High School, a report was filed with the Minnesota Department of Education. As of Friday, public records show no disciplinary findings by the department against him.
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