A teacher demanding children to “speak American” sparked outrage among students of Cliffside Park High School on Monday. Dozens of New Jersey students who saw the video of the incident on social media decided to walk out of class as a sign of protest, against what they perceived to be a racist behavior by the teacher.
At 11:30 a.m., the fire alarm in the school was pulled, students and faculty proceeded to come outside. Puerto Rican Flags depicting Hispanic heritage were being waved outside much to cheers of the crowd that had gathered outside.
“Men and women are fighting. They are not fighting for your right to speak Spanish,” the teacher can be heard saying in the video. “They are fighting for your right to speak American.” continued saying the teacher of a heavily populated Hispanic district.
The president of the high school student council, Kleidon Ndreu, has informed the media, that a closed-board of education, is meeting on Monday to discuss the incident. “It’s very premature,” Ndreu told the many media outlets that gathered outside the school to cover this event. “We need to let the administration do what it is going to do. They are taking this very seriously.”
Superintendent Michael J. Romagnino is yet to comment on the video and its fallout, or on the yet to be publicly identified the teacher, who some students claim to have been profoundly hurt by her words. “It’s wrong and it hurt me a lot,” said 15-year-old Wagner Vasquez, who has Dominican roots. “A lot of people here are hurt.”
Anthony Campos a 16-year-old Hispanic student, says he first saw the video posted on Snapchat, only minutes after the incident had occurred. “Coming from an English teacher — saying to speak American — that was just stupid,” Campos told New Jersey news portal, NJ.com.
https://twitter.com/amany_hamdan/status/919662630687698944
In the video, we can see students becoming clearly upset when the unidentified female teacher starts saying, “you want to leave, be disrespectful” as one of the boys stands up from his desk, grabs his backpack and exits the classroom “goodbye, goodbye,” the teacher can be saying as the camera shows the student about to exiting through the door.
According to a recent census of the Cliffside Park area, there is a 28% Hispanic population residing there. The teacher’s comments were hard to go by unnoticed.
https://twitter.com/RyobeatPeach/status/918833767040593920
Article inspired by NJ.com // ‘Speak American’ teacher video sparks protests at N.J. high school (VIDEO)