Toronto school teacher wants to segregate unmasked and masked children

A Toronto school teacher is recommending fellow educators segregate children based on mask-wearing. Peter Hasek, who goes by "he/they" pronouns, publicly endorsed masking-based segregation practices on his now-deleted Twitter profile.

"Teachers, some best practices for you to implement for March 21: Classrooms with a segregated seating plan," Hasek tweeted. "Students split into masked/unmasked sections. HEPA filters placed between the two. Parents who choose to mask their kids will appreciate your consideration."

According to LinkedIn, Hasek is a music teacher for the Toronto District School Board. The teacher in question will be placed on home assignment pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Toronto Sun reported Friday.

"We strongly disagree with this social media post," TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said in an emailed statement to the Toronto Sun. "The opinion shared by this staff member does not reflect the position of the Toronto District School Board and this will not be happening in any of our classrooms," Bird wrote.

It is not known at which school Hasek teaches. "The teacher in question will be put on home assignment pending the outcome of an investigation," the board said.

Hasek's comments come as Ontario drops its mask mandates.

"I know a lot of people don't want to keep them on and again, we aren’t leading the way in this, we are kind of middle of the back. It's going to be up to the people of Ontario, if you want to keep the mask on, keep it on," said Ford on Wednesday. "If you want to take it off, take it off. But we have to move forward from this, people are exhausted and the poor kids in those classrooms too. Like we got to move on."

In his now-deleted Twitter bio, Hasek had described himself as a "proud parent of a TDSB student and also a proud TDSB teacher for over 20 years."

Since posting his tweet, Hasek attracted backlash online, leading him to delete his Twitter profile altogether. Very little is otherwise known about Hasek.

However, Quillette editor Jonathan Kay uncovered Hasek's reading recommendations, which include: Pedagogy of the Oppressed, The Wretched of the Earth, The Future of Our Schools: Teachers, Unions and Social Justice.

The Post Millennial reached out to the Toronto School District for comment but received no response by the time of publication.