A fifth-grade teacher in Indiana has been suspended after telling her students they were ‘acting like monkeys in a zoo.’
The unidentified teacher was suspended with pay after making the comment on February 24 as outraged parents fumed to the Merrillville School Board.
‘This is what he thinks about our kids,’ one parent said at the Tuesday board meeting. ‘I’m not getting over this… now we see this coming from the president also.’
Parents in the school district angrily voiced their complaints at the board meeting, as the Gary branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has launched an investigation, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Superintendent Dexter Suggs said: ‘We take matters like this extremely seriously.’
Stephen Mays, NAACP’s Gary branch president, condemned the school for not meeting with frustrated parents who subsequently turned to the organization.
‘We understand that NAACP members were concerned about why the staff member was not immediately removed, but personnel decisions must follow our guidelines and contractual language and due process,’ Suggs said, according to the Tribune.
However, the superintendent said the investigation is being pushed forward with ‘a sense of urgency’ and hopes it can come to an end by Friday.
Superintendent Dexter Suggs told parents at a board meeting that the board was taking racially charged comments from a teacher ‘extremely seriously’
The Merrillville Intermediate School teacher, who remains unidentified, told students they were ‘acting like monkeys in a zoo’ on February 24
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Stephen Mays criticized the school for its handling of the situation, which led parents to their organization
The teacher’s remarks were reported to the school’s principal by students almost immediately, according to Suggs. The principal informed parents with children in the class, the outlet reported.
According to Suggs, the teacher admitted fault but said the comments were not intended to have racial implications.
‘He said he was frustrated with the students’ behavior, and he did apologize, unprompted by administrators,’ Suggs said.
But a parent at Tuesday’s board meeting raised concerns that this was actually the second remark of a similar nature made by this teacher.
Mays critiqued the school district’s leadership and handling of the situation, including letting the teacher return to the classroom and not meeting with parents.
‘You let your kids go back to the classroom for that kind of abuse and so people are outraged and now it’s getting out of control,’ he said, the outlet reported.
‘Do your job… so we can tamp this down and lower the temperature. To not talk to [parents] is insulting.’
DeLena Thomas, a member of the board with two children in the district, said: ‘It’s not something we take lightly. We’re preparing our kids for a world that is racially tense right now… I appreciate you reaching out, I’m hoping some conversations continue.’
‘I’m a former principal at Gary Wirt and West Side, so I do know you will get some answers and we do not condone this type of behavior,’ President of the Board Judy Dunlap said.
The Daily Mail reached out to Merrillville Superintendent Suggs and the NAACP for comment.
