I’m 1/4 Mexican, with a huge extended family, almost entirely hispanic, on my maternal grandfather’s side.
No, shouldn’t have even been a reprimand. BFD.
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I lean towards no, but have mixed opinions.
I’m pretty much thinking no, but it is a charged phrase and I feel that an apology to the student and a note in the teacher’s employment file and a warning to be careful of what she says and how should be sufficient.
The mixed opinions come from this:
I don’t think it should be ignored by her principal/school board, because of the loaded phrase, and I’d like to know that if another situation were to arise what was more severe, there would be a documented history of this teacher’s behaviour. Just brushing things away could, hypothetically, lead to not noticing a pattern in someone’s behaviour that might warrant being fired over. If a statement like this were the 3rd or 15th or 102nd time she said it, then fire her. Just keep note, just in case.
There are no racial slurs in English that are as bad as “nigger,” but telling anyone in this country to “go back to _____” is in that class of racial slurs. Absolutely inexcusable. The punishment should be the same as she would have gotten for using the word “nigger” in the same context.
I’m trying to figure out what this means.
I think he’s trying to say that the relevant “community” is just Arlington, not the entire Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.
I’m with Ascenray. The correct response by a frustrated teacher to “I’m from Mexico, I’m from Mexico” should have been “I heard you the first time, shut up and sit down” (ideally in Spanish), then eventually “Go to the Principal’s office NOW.” Or since there were Spanish-language versions of the test, why didn’t she just hand him one first? Or say so in Spanish? I can’t imagine a teacher in a 1/3 Hispanic school being unable to use a simple Spanish sentence like that.
Whatever the case, you don’t default to the bigot’s refrain of “Why don’t you go back where you came from?” For chrissake, I don’t care how many awards she won; suspending her was right, and if she’s fired, she’s earned it. (Especially since she’s also used other perjorative terms.) I have zero tolerance for this kind of crap.
I was reading that article and thinking “Geeze, could they maybe poison the well a bit more by opening with how many awards she has and that tone of oh dearie me her twenty-four year career will be ruined by what some believe is a bigoted comment? Why not just mention she’s also veteran? Is this a news item or a blog post?”
Then I scrolled up to see what the site was. Ah yes. It’s a FOX station. Of course.
…
Never mind. I should have refreshed the page before posting.
So far everyone agrees that this was the wrong thing to say, and I agree.
I can’t believe this is news. This is a teacher momentarily losing her cool, not some racist rant.
How much time would you consider acceptable that an unruly child to steal from your childrens education?
Someone with that much teaching experience should know exactly how to handle a single disruptive kid. Send him to the principal’s office, he’s not your problem anymore. What she said was totally uncalled-for, regardless of context, and the fact that it slipped out during a time when she was stressed (and her barriers were lower, so to speak) indicates the possibility that she’s a closeted racist.
And FYI, it’s absolutely possible for her to have worked closely with the Hispanic community for years and still be racist toward Hispanic people. Her accolades for her work with the Hispanic community aren’t terribly relevant. My dad (and my best friend’s [from highschool] dad) both worked in a steel mill with black guys every day for dozens of years. They treated them respectfully, and even hung out after work sometimes. But when they got home it was n-word this, n-word that.
Should she be fired for it? I’m not qualified enough to make that decision.
I think volunteering to work with hispanic projects is more than simply workmates though. I see it as more ‘benefit of the doubt’ info than ‘well theres no way she can be racist’.
This is one of those issues where details could change my position a fair bit, particularly the general record of the school with these kinds of issues, what she said immediately after making that statement etc.
Otara
Ditto.
So while I think that possibly she should have been spoken to for snapping out, I don’t see any cause to suspend or fire her.
The statement is racist. Racist statements should get you fired. Being angry is no excuse, any more than Sampiro would be wrong to be upset if someone called him a fag when she got upset at him.
We’re no longer in a society where we are hurting for teachers. There are plenty of teachers who wouldn’t say something so racist who currently cannot get a job, except as a substitute. There is no need to do a cost benefit ratio of whether you should keep someone on who has said something so grossly offensive.
Oh, and if the student said they were from Arkansas, and the teacher said “Go back to Arkansas”, that would be bad, too. I don’t know if racist technically applies, but it’s still a comment on how you are inferior because you are from there and that you should go back there rather than try to associate with your betters.
If you can’t keep from making racist comments while you are frustrated–especially over something as little as someone just talking–you really aren’t cut out to be a teacher. I barely survived in teaching classes, and even I know of better ways to handle a disruptive kid: there’s no way a racist comment would be the first thing on my mind.
Also, I bet the tables would be turned if the kid was shouting “I’m gay” the whole time and she told him to go back to his boyfriend. Yes, context matters. And, in this context, she is telling someone who is saying he is Mexican to go back to Mexico–saying he is unworthy of an American education.
I honestly thought I’d be the odd one out for not choosing the first choice, as I do understand her frustration. It just doesn’t excuse her.
Not exactly the greatest idea, but it sounds more like a “go back to your seat and be patient!” comment than “get out of America, you damned ferriner.”
Reading the article, it seems like the kid had a history of being difficult and disrupting class, and was just arguing because he didn’t feel like doing what was required. The teacher, on the other hand, has an excellent record. Not racist, more like, “shut up already!”
I taught in Texas along the Mexican border for several years. I grew well acquainted with a certain type of student whose command of English dropped in direct proportion to how much he didn’t want to do a particular assignment.
I am currently teaching what Sampiro termed puberty school. That age group is hard to deal with at all times. Those of you who have your pitchforks and torches out really ought to bless the educational system with your expertise in handling difficult kids in difficult situations.
When I read other articles on the issue, the board recommended another campus, as relations had broken down with the principal. I also notice a lack of stated support from fellow teachers and the like, but I guess they could just be keeping quiet if the principal feels so strongly about her.
She is 63, and theres also nothing about when she won these awards or did this community work.
So theres also the possibility that she was a great teacher but maybe wasnt so good in recent years.
Otara
But if I were yelling “I’m a fag! I’m a fag!” (which I’m not allowed to do within 500 feet of Rick Santorum) and then you said “I know you’re a fag!” (since “then go back to Mexico” wouldn’t quite make sense, though I’ve heard worse retorts) I think it would take a lot of the heat off of you since you’re quoting a word that’s already in use.
When I first read that the a teacher was suspended for saying “Go back to Mexico” I thought ‘good’ because your mind defaults to a situation where the student did not bring it up and the teacher was just being xenophobic. This has a lot of extenuating circumstances, plus ‘go back to Mexico’ is only actually racist if you consider there’s something intrinsically inferior about being from Mexico.
It has nothing to do with Mexico. There’s something intrinsically hostile, dismissive, and demeaning about a suggestion that you don’t belong in this country. To say that to an immigrant or someone from an immigrant background is worse than an outright racial slur.
I voted for the last-but-one option. She should have been reprimanded but not suspended. And she should have had to apologise to the student, though itd’ be good if he also apologised for being disruptive.
She shouldn’t have used that phrase because it is so loaded with bigotry from previous uses, but it wasn’t like she just randomly walked up to a student and told him he didn’t belong in the country.
Given the context, I say she’s wrong but not worth firing. Maybe what she said was insensitive, but I don’t think it was intended as racist or xenophobic. Working with Latinos may not be proof that you aren’t racist, but it certainly indicates where her true values lie. Her past record would be a huge factor in determining how to handle the situation.
When I think of this situation, I think of it as like the white guy who thinks he’s down enough with his black friends to call them the n-word. It’s a matter of overestimating how ‘‘in’’ you are with a certain population.
I guess I see it that way because I do a lot of work with Latinos and am a staunch supporter of immigrant rights, but at the end of the day, I’m just a white girl who doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about. And that will never change, no matter how hard I work to understand.