Springfield water park under fire after minimizing teachers on social media

A local amusement park is receiving backlash after a comment on social media.

While guests at Knights Action Park at 1700 Knights Recreation Drive are used to the fountains and water blasters around the splash pads, on Sunday morning there was a different type of blasting on the company’s Facebook post, following a comment made by the business about teachers not doing enough in schools.

“Baseline is I did it on my phone, didn’t review it, said the word teachers and I should have said schools and school start date,” Knight said. “That’s when everything blew up. … I just want the hate to stop, that's all I want.”

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In response to a question about schedules, the co-owner of the waterpark Doug Knight posted to the company Facebook about teachers receiving paid vacation time for several different holidays, and that students are receiving a worse education through longer sessions.

“I guess as long as teachers get two weeks vacation for Christmas, one for Easter, a four day workweek every other week,” Knight wrote. “Our kids are getting out of high school with a 6th grade education. It's all worth it. They could add 15 minutes a day to the schedule. Over 180 days that gets the students two more weeks of education, and would save our summer. However, I am assuming the school boards can do math.”

The response was quick.

“Just in case anyone missed this comment by Knights Action Park-- a place that is HEAVILY supported by the education community,” Springfield local Hannah Wilson wrote. “I come from a family of educators, as does (my husband). The ongoing narrative of our job being "lazy and easy" is constantly disproven by the continual lack of teacher retention and plethora of job openings across the country.”

Several commenters across the social media site have called the comments about teachers being lazy critically wrong, and a reason to avoid buying passes for the season – ranging in cost $145 to $150 .

In response to the posts, Knight posted an apology on the business' Facebook page :

"I have deep respect for teachers and their dedication to their students. My own children have had the privilege of being taught by incredible educators who went above and beyond to support their learning and personal growth. I am committed to supporting initiatives that promote education and celebrate the achievements of teachers and students in our community. Again, I apologize for any harm my words may have caused."

I want to sincerely apologize to any teacher who may have felt offended by my recent comment. I understand that my words...

Posted by Knight's Action Park on Sunday, August 25, 2024

Over 1,000 comments have been made on the post since Sunday, with most left underwhelmed by the apology and calling for the park to be more insightful about teacher’s positions in the field and their long working hours.

“As a teacher that worked there this past summer, I’m shocked. To blame ANY of this on teachers is ridiculous,” District 186 teacher Amanda Kother posted online. “We teachers don't make the calendar, and I know many of your patrons in the summer are teachers. Not sure this apology will work.”

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Other members of the education system in Springfield defended the park on its previous history of working alongside the district.

“I don’t know what started all of this or what your comment was and quite honestly, I don’t need to know. I do know you have supported students at my school and others for the last SEVERAL years with the incentive of free passes,” Springfield resident Mary Beth Kruzan posted. “I do know we ALL say things at some time we wish we hadn’t, things are taken out of context, blown out of proportion.”

The program for free passes comes from the third grade reading program with Knights Action Park, where third graders can read 10 different books to get a free pass to the park for a day.

Knight has been in opposition to schools starting before Labor Day since 2007; he says the tourism industry suffers with earlier start dates for schools, and cited tourism industries do better in states like Michigan where school goes back after Labor Day.

"It's been going on for decades, taking away the summer from the tourist industry," Knight said. "And which there's only 400,000 people in the state in that industry. It's just making it harder on tourism in the state."

Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@gannett.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield water park under fire after minimizing teachers on social media