Both the teacher and the school were irresponsible. The father is correct in that ignorance is not an acceptable defense in this situation. With that said, an apology is sufficient. As long as the teacher and school learned their lessons and enact future preventative measures, it's fine. You have to be extremely careful about this kind of stuff these days. However, this incident makes it clear that the teacher isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the room. Thus in that context, any parent (regardless of race or ethnicity) who cares about the quality of their child's schooling will probably have reservations about that teacher's ability to do her job well.
I am not sure how the teacher is considered irresponsible. If we are taught that we shouldn't see a persons skin color, how are we suppose to get over racism if everyone is expected to know every slang word for every race and ethnicity in this world? These days, any word or phrase can mean anything. "netflix and chill". Should we expect the teacher to be paranoid about everything and look for a racial boogyman in every corner? The teacher maybe naive, but Im not going to put fault into her. "Ok class, you picked the name Badgers. Let me check and see if anyone might find this offensive first, mmkkaayy"
This willful ignorance, along with your false equivalency on steroids routine, is why you have no credibility. Who would be responsible for using a slur as a class name but the teacher? Is that even serious? Jesus. We should expect her to know or find out what the hell a word means if it's representing the class. Stupidity is no excuse here.
I had never heard of this term before this story. I can't believe this is even a story. Honest mistake, nobody was hurt.
Although I agree she should have looked it up, I'm not sure I agree with the thinking that the construction of the word was a clue: Bugaboo Hugaboo jugaboo Bugaloo Hullabaloo none of those terms have any racial connotation or denotation and they all sound similar - as a matter of fact, could she have confused jigaboo with one of these very similar sounding words?
Honest mistake? Yes I agree Nobody was Hurt? I disagree. Someone's feelings were hurt, otherwise this wouldn't be a story at all - However it did have the potential to hurt a LOT of peoples feelings. Mostly older people, but people none the less.
Boogaloo You should google every single word you ever type or write down too make sure it isn't offensive. Especially if kids came up with the word and it sounds like a nonsense term that kids might have made up.
thanks, I forgot that one - you're referring to the dance..I was referring to The bugaloos, a popular 70's kids show Read back through my posts, I too said she should have googled it.
I would have just assumed students made the word up and that it wasn't an actual word for anything . I can understand that maybe she could have googled it , but if she thought it was a made up word or a kid word then I don't see how the thought to look it up would come to mind . The question of how/if to change the class name is more pressing . How should the teacher answer the question of why the name is changing ? Should they educate kids that it is a bad/ mean word ? Now the kids know an extra bad word . The fact that archaic/ esoteric terminology is being handled so carefully means that the definition of the word will never change . Language is an interesting and powerful thing . I'm curious to see how this "situation" is resolved .
I think ignorance is a legitimate excuse in this case. The teacher just didn't know the word. It sounds like a made up word. I agree that the teacher probably should have done some research into what the word means. But, I think the apology by the school and by the teacher is sufficient. Let's not make a mountain out of a molehill.
A teacher in Texas doesn't know the term 'Jiggaboo'? You kidding me. Texas is like the king of racial slurs.
Would you believe the construction of the word possibly is a clue, had JuanValdez said "Jigga" is too close to "Nigg&" versus him suggesting the "boo" part was the clue. When I was a kid, that's what we all thought: It was meant to resemble "Nigg&." as well as a play on peekaboo btw: the correct spelling of Nigg& is filtered by cfnet -- "*****"
We were doing some trivia game in Science class and I tried to name our team the "Mutha Futhas," because Redd Foxx had just used that line on that sitcom with Della Resse that he died on the set of. I got the laugh, but the teacher wrote in Sharpie on the overhead "Mudda Fuddas."
I don't think we should be reading about it in the ******* paper. Talk to the principal, give the college educated white girl a scare and get an apology to boost your self esteem, but not in front of the kid who now knows what story to tell to undercut an authority figure.
