A librarian at an elementary school in Maryland is accused of using the n-word during an altercation in a Walmart parking lot in a viral video posted on Facebook. The woman has been identified as Darlene Sale, a 70-year-old employee of the Prince George’s County Public Schools district.
Sale has worked as a teacher and librarian in Prince George’s and Charles counties for several decades. Sale’s status with the school district was not immediately known. She could not be reached for comment by Heavy.
After she was identified by members of the community as being the woman in the video, the school district issued a statement on social media saying, “PGCPS is aware of a video on social media involving an employee. We are working to address parent & community concerns. Diversity & tolerance are our core values. We expect all members of the PGCPS community — administrators, faculty, staff & students — to behave in a respectful manner.”
The video was posted to Facebook on Monday by Dawn Nichelle Lennon. “So while leaving the Walmart parking lot my husband was called The N Word, because he didn’t move out the parking spot the way she wanted him to. So you know me I chased her down and confronted her,” she said in the Facebook post.
In the video, Lennon can be heard asking Sale, “did you just call my husband the n-word?” Sale responds, “yeah I did.” As Lennon confronts Sale, the librarian pushes the camera recording her to the side and keeps walking toward Walmart.
You can watch the video below:
Lennon said on Facebook, “How dare she talk to my husband that way and in front of me and my children. The thing I thought was so profound is that she was proud of it and didn’t try to deny it. My house was burned down in 2004 by racist and now this!!! I’m so ashamed to live in a country that supports this type of hatred and bigotry.”
Lennon and her husband, Micah Lennon, could not be reached for comment by Heavy. She said on Facebook the incident happened at the Walmart in La Plata, Maryland.
According to the Prince George County Public Schools website, Darlene Sale is a media specialist at Potomac Landing Elementary School in Fort Washington, Maryland. She has worked as a teacher and librarian in the school district for several years. Court documents from a lawsuit filed regarding a labor issue show that Sale previously was a teacher and librarian in Charles County, dating back to the 1970s.
Sale is married with grown children and lives in Newburg, Maryland, according to her Facebook page. She is originally from Orlando, Florida, and graduated from Bangor Area Senior High School in Pennsylvania in 1966. She then graduated from Shippensburg University in 1970.
Lennon, 45, who also uses the name Dawn Tolson-Hightower, is a victim witness services coordinator at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington D.C., according to her Linkedin profile. She has also worked as a management and program analyst with the Department of Homeland Security with the refugee affairs and international operations divisions.
“To my surprise finding out that she teaches children that she would use such language like that,” Lennon told WJLA-TV. She told the news station her children were with her. “I wanted my children to see that you don’t tolerate this kind of racist rhetoric and bigotry. none of this should be tolerated. She needs to apologize to the school system, she needs to apologize to those children. She needs to realize what she did and I don’t think she realizes it.”
The Prince George’s County school district told WJLA that the incident is under investigation and Sale will not be on school property while that investigation is completed.
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