A Baltimore teacher has been fired after she as caught on video berating students, including calling them the n-word. (Facebook)
A white teacher at a Baltimore school has been fired after she was caught on video berating black students, including calling them the n-word.
The teacher can be seen kicking a student out of class and then yelling at other kids in the 1-minute video. At one point she says if the students don’t get an education they will become a “punk ass n*gger who’s going to get shot.”
You can watch the video below:
The video was posted to Facebook Wednesday night by a parent at the Harlem Park Elementary/Middle School, and on Thursday, the teacher, who has not been named, was fired by the Baltimore City Public Schools system, the Baltimore Sun reports.
“On Tuesday, November 15, a middle school science teacher at Harlem Park Elementary/Middle School engaged in verbally abusive behavior and made racially charged comments directed at students,” the school district said in a statement. “The teacher involved in the incident is no longer employed by City Schools.
“At Baltimore City Public Schools, we are committed to creating positive and equitable learning environments in school communities where all members are welcome, supported, and valued. No form of discriminatory behavior of any kind is or will be tolerated,” the statement said.
The video was viewed more than 1.8 million times on the Facebook page of Erica Esha Deminds, who posted it Wednesday night.
Deminds told the New York Daily News her son showed her the video, which was recorded by another student.
“I see it and I’m floored! So I uploaded it and shared it with my family, didn’t think it would go as far as it went,” Deminds told the Daily News. “She’s a very nice teacher. I can’t say what happened that day. I think she was at a breaking point.”
Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young responded to the video on Twitter:
It turns my stomach to think about this woman in front of a classroom of impressionable young minds.
Our schools, in addition to learning environments, should serve as safe havens for the young people entrusted in our care.
There’s zero tolerance for adults who violate our young people. That video is proof that we have more work to do as a city and a country.
Councilman Brandon M. Scott also weighed in:
What the teacher said at Harlem Park is despicable. @BaltCitySchools took quick and appropriate action.
Sonja Santelises, the CEO of the school system, told reporters, “This is not a case of just a struggling teacher,” WMAR-TV reports.
“I was appalled when I first saw the video,” Santelises said at a press conference. She said she immediately contacted human resources and school supervisors and took action. “In the current climate, we in city schools are very, very clear on where we stand with any kind of hate speech, any kind of obvious discriminatory language. The behavior in that video was not about a teacher trying to regain control of the class. The focus of our reaction was really about the way the teacher went about it and frankly the young people were addressed. It was inappropriate.”
Read more about this video in Spanish at AhoraMismo.com:
