Parents, Community Rally To Support Embattled Brookline Teacher

BROOKLINE, MA — It's unclear whether Larry Chen, a sixth-grade social studies teacher at the Heath School will have a job when school starts back up. That's why Wednesday night at Town Hall was packed with parents and students with a message for the Superintendent's Office: Save Mr. Chen.

On Sept. 5, Chen and his attorney met with Superintendent Andrew Bott in a private disciplinary meeting there. Chen told supporters it was to discuss his decision to allow a few students to play Halo in the classroom.

Six to eight students played the game for no more than 20 minutes during a homeroom period, according to Chen, who also played and supervised.

What's Halo? The Sci-fi Xbox video game made by the brand Bungie rates their games, which are generally first-person shooter style, for teens or mature players 17 and up. Chen argues there is no blood and guts and humans are only fighting aliens with laser beams in the games he played with students outside of instructional time.

Chen said he got a letter from the superintendent on June 25 just before school let out, letting him know that his job was on the line and that there would be a disciplinary meeting with the head of Brookline Public Schools.

Before a local school district can fire someone, state law says it must allow the teacher in question to meet with the superintendent and provide any relevant information that could help their case. The teacher can also have a lawyer and a union representative at the meeting.

“The purpose in letting my homeroom students play this game was to foster connections between students and their teacher,” according to Chen’s statement. “My experience as an educator in Brookline has taught me that when children feel connected to and supported by their teachers, it can impact their social and academic growth in incredible, positive ways.”

This is not the first time that the community has rallied for Chen as his future with the Brookline Public Schools has been called into question.

In 2015, Chen was asked to come to a disciplinary hearing for saying “bull***t” in front of two high school students after school. Parents and students marched to support Chen with homemade signs and chanting "Save Mr. Chen." Chen kept his job, but later moved to the Heath School.

People who were at the Wednesday night rally said they felt solidarity and a strong show of support for Chen.

"I believe that this kind of support will put tremendous pressure on the district to retain Mr. Chen if at all reasonably possible to do so," said Brookline resident Mike Offner.

Parents said they could feel there must be some pressure to consider firing him, but because the district was keeping that info private, it was tough to know just how much of a case they had.

"My best guess at this point is that they will choose to let him stay on and continue teaching unless they are in possession of some kind of information that makes it essentially impossible for them not to fire him. I have no idea what that might be, but 'playing video games in homeroom' would not seem to be compelling enough to fire someone who has such widespread and strong support," said Offner who added that he figured the district would likely not fire Chen unless they felt they had no choice.

READ HIS STATEMENT: Brookline Teacher Says He Faces Discipline For Video Game

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Photo by Jenna Fisher who can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).