STOCKTON, Calif. — Parents are calling for a Stockton teacher to be fired for allegedly making racist comments next to a student's name. They were made aware of the allegations a week ago and say they want the school to take action.
"Certified hate speech, so casually written by a teacher in a position of power," said Manipol-Lee, a mother of four.
It was in a classroom at Sierra Middle School in Stockton, where students say they stumbled upon a seating chart with the N-word written by a student's picture.
"We're told... the seating chart is where the teacher uses to take her notes and notate points. From my understanding, she might have heard this kid say a form of that word and very casually notated it on her clipboard. But not in the same way he said it, in the form of a racial slur," said Manipol-Lee.
Manipol-Lee says the irony of it all is she's a teacher in the dual-language program, and she could have written 'racial slur' or 'inappropriate language' to signify what the kid said. But instead, she said she chose to use the N-word.
The school's superintendent Kelly Dextraze sent a statement to ABC10:
Lincoln Unified School District does not condone actions of racism or the use of culturally insensitive language. The use of racial slurs is not allowed or tolerated in our schools, and we respond with both discipline and education when either students or staff engage in such behavior. However, because this matter is related to the disclosure of student disciplinary documents, we are prohibited by law from commenting on the specifics of this incident. We continue to investigate and have already begun to take action to address any known impacts on our students and families. The teacher has not returned to the classroom and the school site will be working to address next steps. Site administrators will be meeting with students and families, and plans will be implemented to prevent instances such as this from happening in the future. We are grateful to the families who have already reached out to us with their input, recommendations and suggestions as we move forward.
For Manipol-Lee, she says she does not want the instructor to be teaching her daughter.
"It's racism. Besides the fact that my daughter, she's got an African-American father, she's got two brothers. Besides that as a person, it shouldn't just bother me. It shouldn't. It should bother the whole community," said Manipol-Lee.
The principal sent a formal apology Friday saying he's going to investigate it. Wednesday night, the Lincoln Unified School District school board also discussed a resolution to approve a list of teachers to teach outside their credential area.
The dual-language teacher was one of them, but ABC10 was told she was denied after parents spoke out.
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