Offensive Class Name

the short version:
A 6th grade teacher asks the students (of varying ethnicities and races) to come up with a name for the class. The students decided it should be the "Jigaboos", so the teacher (not knowing the word) made it the class name and put it on a sign in the classroom. "Mr's ____'s Jigaboos"

A child told his dad that evening when the dad asked what they did at school that day and the the dad immediately took action.


http://www.dallasnews.com/news/educ...-gives-class-a-racial-slur-for-a-nickname.ece

Spoiler

Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD has apologized after a sixth-grade teacher gave her class a racial slur — "Jighaboos" — for a nickname.

The father of a student in the class told KDFW-TV (Channel 4) that he learned about the class's nickname when he asked about his child's day at school.

He then went to Bell Manor Elementary School and took a picture of a laminated sign in his child's classroom. "I had to see it myself," he said.

The sign reads: "Mrs. _______'s Jighaboos are at school today to achieve our 6th grade goals and prepare for 7th grade."

The child said other classes got different nicknames — such as the "Dream Team" — and that students recite the sign out loud.

The father said his child's teacher is white and that the children in the class are white, black and Latino.

H-E-B ISD officials told KDFW that the teacher didn't know that the word is an offensive term that refers to black people.

In a written statement, the district said: "[We] would like to extend an apology for the inappropriate actions taken by one of our elementary teachers who failed to vet a class name. We take this situation seriously and the issue was immediately addressed with the principal and classroom teacher. Both the principal and the teacher have apologized to the parent reporting this concern."

But the father whose child alerted him to the nickname said, "Ignorance is not a defense."

My thoughts: I can easily see how the teacher didn't know the term was a slur since it is such an antiquated word. - especially if the teacher is youngish (like in her 20's). I don't think I've ever heard that term used in conversation in my entire life and I'm 43. If it was the N-word or something more common, I wouldn't accept that as an explanation (notice I said explanation, NOT excuse). Being the spouse of a teacher, I can understand how teachers are extremely busy and hurried in the first couple of weeks, however the teacher REALLY should have googled the term before accepting the students suggestion.

However, what do you think is the appropriate response by the district?

After watching the video and reading the article, I'm still not sure what the dad is wanting to happen, as they never addressed it.

I think a formal apology by the teacher is appropriate along with the teacher being written up, but many in the area are calling for more action.

do you think that is fair?

 

I was thinking the same thing, but then someone mentioned elsewhere that she may have tried to search it, but misspelled it (its misspelled on her class sign) - if she had searched it misspelled and with quotation marks around it, it may not have brought up any results (depending on the search engine, or the safety-blocked school search engines)

 

LOL - it stands for Hurst, Euless, Bedford - the cities served by the district