Alaska Principal Fired Amid Native Anger Over Coaster Design

A school principal in Alaska has been fired after a coaster he designed in one of the home-economics classrooms—showing three children in Native attire surrounded by insulting phrases—was discovered and put on social media. Brett Stirling, who led the North Slope Borough School District, told the Anchorage Daily News that the words—which included “Striving for excrement” and “New stupid behaviors started daily”—were aimed at the school district administrators and not students. “I’m mortified by how it was interpreted. I did not in any way intend it as a slight against Native people,” Stirling said.