{"id":3065,"date":"2023-05-26T00:12:03","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T00:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3065"},"modified":"2023-05-26T00:14:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T00:14:22","slug":"patrick-dopke-elkhorn-teacher-facing-firing-over-naggers-south-park-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3065","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Dopke: Elkhorn Teacher Facing Firing Over \u2018Naggers\u2019 South Park Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/patrick-dopke\/<\/a><\/p>\n

An Elkhorn Area School District teacher, Patrick Dopke, has been recommended for termination by the superintendent after he posted the puzzle \u201cn_ggers\u201d on a whiteboard in an effort to mimic a famous South Park episode in which the phrase was eventually revealed to be \u201cna<\/strong>ggers\u201d in a \u201cWheel of Fortune\u201d parody, Wisconsin Right Now has learned.<\/p>\n

Dopke never used the racial slur and told the superintendent he has never used it in his life, WRN learned in an interview with both the superintendent and Dopke. You can watch the South Park episode here.<\/a> Be forewarned that, unlike Dopke, the character in it actually uses the racial slur when trying to solve the puzzle, but the word is revealed to be \u201cnaggers.\u201d The episode was called \u201cWith Apologies to Jesse Jackson.\u201d Here is a detailed synopsis<\/a> of it.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin Right Now was sent the photo by a concerned person who is connected to the district. Here is the photo:<\/p>\n

\"Patrick
Patrick dopke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dopke is a math teacher in the district. The incident is somewhat reminiscent of the firing<\/a> of a Miller executive who told a female co-worker about a Seinfeld episode that involves \u201cthe body part that rhymes with Dolores.\u201d That executive never actually used the word, the AP reported at the time.<\/p>\n

In an interview with WRN, Dopke, a math teacher for 29 years who is about a year from his pension, acknowledged that \u201cit\u2019s a bad visual,\u201d but stressed, \u201cThere was no ill intent. Nothing racial. I\u2019m not a rabble rouser. I don\u2019t talk race or anything remotely political.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that students had mentioned people annoying them, and he thought of the episode because he was a South Park fan and he likes \u201cto interject humor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t trying to ruffle people\u2019s feathers,\u201d he said. He did note that he believes the episode in question was \u201ccertainly making a point about cancel culture,\u201d and noted that there was \u201cirony\u201d to that because cancel culture was now occurring \u201cagainst me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dopke stated, \u201cI made a mistake. It was a bad example. The School Board can decide what they feel is best for their school. It\u2019s just a matter right now that I have to stay away from school.\u201d Of the racial slur, he added, \u201cThe word was never said. I don\u2019t ever say that word.\u201d The puzzle meant naggers because he was illustrating what the episode\u2019s puzzle showed, he said.<\/p>\n

We also reached out to Elkhorn Superintendent Jason Tadlock<\/a>, who confirmed the authenticity of the photo. Tadlock agreed to speak to WRN in the interest of public transparency. He said he believed the public deserved to know the facts.<\/p>\n

Tadlock agreed that Dopke did not intend to cause racial harm and did not mean the puzzle to reference a racial slur. However, he said said he is still recommending Dopke for termination. The School Board will have the final say.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it is authentic,\u201d Tadlock said of the photo in a May 25, 2023, interview with WRN.<\/p>\n

According to Tadlock, the photo came to the attention of the administration on May 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel we have to take the action we are taking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The photo \u201cwas shared with a staff member which brought it to administration\u2019s attention,\u201d said Tadlock, who said the district launched an investigation and placed Dopke on administrative leave. The picture was actually taken last fall, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in reference to \u2013 the students were talking about Wheel of Fortune,\u201d said Tadlock. \u201cThe teacher is a South Park fan and was trying to relate to the students.\u201d He said the teacher told the students \u201cabout a South Park episode\u201d where the word was eventually revealed to be \u201cnaggers,\u201d after the clue \u201cpeople that annoy you was given.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had written that on the board, and a student snapped a picture,\u201d said Tadlock.<\/p>\n

In the episode, \u201cthe contestant yells out the \u2018n word,\u2019 and everyone goes silent, and then Wheel of Fortune gets canceled,\u201d said Dopke.<\/p>\n

\"Patrick<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the discussion; he was trying to relate to the students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he said that he was recommending Dopke for termination because \u201cwe have to be brighter and have better judgment than that.\u201d He said the district takes what happened \u201cvery serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

He met with Dopke at 4 p.m. May 25 to tell the teacher the outcome.<\/p>\n

Even though he acknowledges Dopke never had racist intent, and never actually used the racial slur, he said he was recommending him for termination because his action was \u201cinappropriate, inexcusable, and he should have known better.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the \u201cwhole irony in all of this\u201d was that the original South Park critique was about cancel culture. But he said, \u201cThe teacher did use bad judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clue is people who annoy you; it\u2019s the whole setup to make you think it\u2019s the \u2018n word,’\u201d said Tadlock. He said it was \u201cnot an appropriate joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said students \u201ccued in that this is inappropriate by taking pictures.\u201d However, Dopke noted it happened \u201clong ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tadlock said Patrick Dopke is in his third or fourth year in the district and was a \u201cveteran teacher, a math teacher\u201d who used to work in the Wilmot district. Online news reports say Patrick Dopke was a softball coach in that district previously.<\/p>\n

He did not have any proper disciplinary issues at Elkhorn, according to Tadlock. Dopke said he has not had any other discipline his entire 29-year teaching career.<\/p>\n

Tadlock also said that Dopke told him that he had never used the racial slur in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was trying to make a connection with students, and he found that episode humorous. He was a math teacher just at the beginning of class working to make a connection,\u201d said Tadlock, adding that no students complained at the time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/patrick-dopke\/ An Elkhorn Area School District teacher, Patrick Dopke, has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":3067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3070,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065\/revisions\/3070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}