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Teacher suspended for accidentally saying "nigger" Post #1

spiceboy
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Joined: Mar 2002
Location: barcelona - palermo from http://www.theargusonline.com/Stori...1705241,00.html

Teacher chastened over rhyme
Kennedy instructor may face punishment after using offensive
By Sandhya Somashekhar, STAFF WRITER

FREMONT -- A Kennedy High School English teacher is on leave this week after using a racist term for blacks -- apparently by accident -- while addressing some students in her class, parents and school officials say.
Teacher Malti Massey let the word slip while using the rhyme "eeny, meeny, miney, moe" to choose a student to take a note to the main office earlier this month, students said.

Current versions of the old rhyme use the word "tiger" instead of the offensive term.

District officials wouldn't confirm the teacher's name, nor would they say what disciplinary action, if any, the district might take, citing employee confidentiality.

However, such language is not tolerated at the school, they said.

"It's worse than inappropriate," district spokesman Gary Leatherman said. "There are inappropriate terms and words, and then there are some words that are just universally offensive and simply should not be used."

Two of the students who overheard the exchange are black.

Realizing she had said something inappropriate, the teacher immediately apologized, Kennedy Principal Vivienne Paratore said. The teacher then explained that she had learned that version of the poem as a child in another country -- India, students said -- and hadn't realized until then that it contained the derisive word, Paratore said.

"She didn't realize the word was in there until it came out, and she was so shocked when it did," said Paratore, adding that she doesn't believe the teacher is racist. "That, however, does not mean that it's OK to use such language," she continued. "We take this kind of thing extremely seriously at Kennedy High School."

Attempts to reach Massey were unsuccessful. Whatever the reason the word was said, it never should have been uttered by a teacher, the two black students and their parents said. They say they want to see the teacher reprimanded in some way.

"My problem here is that, if you're a teacher -- and an English teacher at that -- you're supposed to be well above that type of language," parent Steiner Smith said.

Smith's daughter, Cortlyn Smith, was standing outside the classroom when she overheard the rhyme.

"I was surprised. I was mad, too. I was like, why would she say that?" said the freshman, who said she believed Massey was a "nice teacher" until the incident.

Jasmine Grady, another freshman, was in the classroom when the incident occurred. She said she initially had accepted Massey's explanation that she was reciting the poem by rote without regard to its meaning but was overwhelmed by a sense of anger and humiliation as the period wore on.

"It was sinking in, and made me madder and madder and madder," Grady said. "I couldn't believe she said that."

Both students were transferred out of Massey's class at their parents' request. Neither student -- nor their parents -- had ever heard that version of the rhyme, they said.

And despite their outrage, neither family is convinced that Massey, who they said is an Indo-American, is racist.

"I think she said that because she probably used to say that when she was little, and she did it out of carelessness," Cortlyn Smith said. "But a teacher doesn't have a right to say that, especially in a class with African-American kids in it."

This isn't the first time the Fremont school district has grappled with the "n-word." Last school year, someone burned what appeared to be the epithet into the grass at Washington High. Groundskeepers believe the person used fertilizer or some other corrosive substance to etch the letters on a hillock in the school's courtyard.

A 2001 name-calling survey showed that 63 percent of Fremont students hear racial slurs directed at various groups while at school. In fact, a large proportion of the district's disciplinary problems stem from race-related name-calling and fights, officials said then.

The district this year is embarking on a "character education" program, in which students are taught respect, responsibility and other character traits alongside their regular academic subjects. The program was adopted partly in response to the 2001 survey.

And I bet any amount of money that they'll do everything under the sun except expand the school curriculum to include more education of the history and cultures of African and African-American people (and that of other peoples and cultures for that matter) -- the one and only honest, effective, and real way to combat racism and negative stereotyping.

Although I am very upset about this .............I was thinking.......what made the teacher said "nigger".....: lemme think..................
eeny , meeney, miney , moe,
catch a nigger by his toe,......

WHAT!!!!!

I dont think that was an accident...: : :

contrary to the parent's opinion, i don't think the teacher is racist. I too learned that rhyme with the 'n' word in it, and because many people are not familiar with it, they may assume that the person is being racial, when they are not!! However, I think if the teacher directed the name at a student then, according to the parents the teacher should be reprimanded but not for that....because if the teacher apologized immediately, it was because she realized how people would interpret it...but hey if the principal did not take action, the parents would be in much of an uproar over the situation and who wants to be viewed as unfavourable when you're at the top of the ladder!!

chinee reminded me that I didn't comment on the situation itself.....

I disagree with the notion that the teacher is automatically racist. Like was said, she immediately stopped singing it, and apologized right away, and true also, it wasn't something directed at a student. If people wanted to combat this racism, they might try to find out where this teacher hails from and what racist attitudes she was exposed to in her day.

Example, I see a whooooole lot of people freely using the word "coolie" without the slightest notion that it is a completely racist term. If that person has no knowledge of this whatsoever, and was taught that way from day 1, is it right to call them racist? (I don't know the answer to that one) I guess though the same case could be made for many americans that use the n-word; I admit, I'd be more likely to call them racist

But, in this society, the knee-jerk reaction to reprimand the teacher was really the only one appropriate, unfortunately. *sigh*