HOUSTON – Parents from the Houston School District are calling for the termination of a substitute teacher that allegedly used a racial slur when addressing a group of fifth grade students. Officials said the Houston School Board will meet next Monday, March 8, and parents are asking to address the board at that meeting about the issue.
The incident reportedly occurred on Feb. 10, and one parent, Tamika Ivy, told The Chickasaw Journal that her son was in the classroom and heard what was said to the black students.
“My son said a bunch of kids were at the pencil sharpener and [the teacher] said, ‘You [expletive deleted] need to sit down,’ Ivy said. “He said everything got real quiet, but she never apologized or said she was sorry. The word she used is very negative and hurtful and no child should ever be called that.”
The matter was reported to the school and the unnamed substitute teacher was suspended from the school district without pay for two days. The teacher who also drives a school bus for the Houston, Mississippi school district, continued to work in that position.
Parents, however, feel that stronger measures need to be taken.
“Justice needs to be served,” said Ivy. “She needs to be terminated. [The children] can’t learn sitting there and thinking that their teacher called them the n-word and nothing has been done about it other than a two day suspension.”
Steve Coker, superintendent for the Houston School District, said the suspension was handled within the confines of school policies and procedures.
“The situation that occurred was unprofessional and inappropriate,” Coker told WTVA. “We think we’ve taken appropriate action for the situation [and] everyone may not agree with that.”
On Feb. 20, a group of about 84 people gathered at Callahan Missionary Baptist Church, in Woodland, Miss., to discuss their concerns and what actions they wanted the school board to take regarding the substitute teacher.
The Chickasaw Journal reported that Harold Jackson, the first vice president of the Calhoun County branch of the NAACP was the spokesman at that meeting.
“We want the school board to understand how serious we think this incident is,” Jackson said. “We need some movement from the Houston school system.”
Jackson said parents and the local NAACP sent a certified letter to the Houston School District concerning the issue, and that the matter has also been reported to state and national organizations.
“We are concerned that neither the district nor the local community has responded strongly about this,” said Shenia Jones of Houston, who spoke at the meeting. “This is not something that we want happening in Houston and it is not something that we will allow to happen in our schools.”
The Chickasaw Journal said there are about 1,950 students enrolled in the Houston School District. The racial makeup of the district is about 41 percent black, 52 percent white and 6 percent Hispanic.
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