It hasn’t been a good week for the country’s educational institutions, an Oklahoma teacher was caught in an affair with one of her teenage students during the week and now a teacher at Fulmore Middle School in Austin, Texas told a Spanish speaking student to “go back to Mexico” in a manner that was so aggressive that it even sparked a protest against the school district.
Around 120 parents packed the Fulmore Middle School library on Friday morning, waiting for an answer from education staff or the school district concerning the protest that had taken place in school grounds a few days earlier where the students accused the teacher of the racist remarks.
They’re walking the halls, chanting “Say it loud. Say it clear. Refugees are welcome here!”
(Video sent to me by niece, a student there) pic.twitter.com/WwHWn5b2bh— mexican vanilla (@MarissaElayne) November 15, 2017
During this special PTA meeting, parents were expecting to hear the details about the actions that the school district would take against the teacher, pretty much everybody inside the building was calling for the teacher to be fired or removed from campus.
However, parents were disappointed to know that the unidentified teacher was only placed on administrative leave pending a review, they were also further disappointed by the administration’s refusal to discuss the specifics of the disciplinary actions that they could take, citing personal privacy and the ongoing review of the incident.
Middle schoolers in Austin walk out in protest after teacher tells a student to "go back to Mexico." https://t.co/GF2MZbRKB5
— Aztlan Libre Press (@AztlanLPress) November 18, 2017
The meeting lasted for about 90 minutes and in it, two parents told the school administrators that they had also crossed the teacher in question and had bad experiences with him, they accused him of always making insensitive remarks like the ones the students had to call him out for.
One of the parents even said that last year she had made an anonymous phone call to the school to complain about the teacher, the mother said she concealed her identity for fear of retaliation against her child. School’s principal Lisa Bush had to come out and apologize to the parents for their unresponsiveness to the teacher’s remarks that happened two weeks ago.
VIDEO: Austin middle school students walk out in protest of teacher's 'insensitive' comment toward Spanish-speaking student https://t.co/leGv0wKYyB pic.twitter.com/vpBRHWsig5
— KXAN News (@KXAN_News) November 15, 2017
On Tuesday night, Bush wrote a letter to the parents addressing their concerns “an adult staff member made an insensitive statement to a student. Comments such as that are not tolerated at any level and appropriate actions were taken.” The letter, however, did not go into detail about what it was that the teacher said or is being accused of saying and what actions will the school district take to amend the situation and discipline its employee.
JUST IN: Teacher accused of telling student ‘go back to Mexico’ is put on leave https://t.co/IxgfKN5vHX
— Austin Statesman (@statesman) November 17, 2017
Article inspired by Statesman // Teacher accused of telling student ‘go back to Mexico’ is put on leave