PUYALLUP, Wash. — A Puyallup teacher at Glacier View Junior High is under fire from parents after writing a race-related profanity on a whiteboard during class Tuesday.
Single mom, Soteda Pha says her seventh-grade daughter watched her teacher write the slur on the board during English class.
“This is not a word you play with,” says Pha. “You’re a teacher. If the students know that’s wrong, why didn’t you?”
Wednesday afternoon, a letter from that teacher went out to Puyallup families.
In it, the teacher explains they were learning about abolitionist Sojourner Truth and her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?”
“One word used in the speech is the word “negro” and in teaching the lesson, some students expressed concern that the word was the same as the ‘n-word,’” the teacher wrote.
In the letter, the teacher argues that the photo was taken out of context, and explains that they wrote on the whiteboard to distinguish between the two.
“I feel like she should be disciplined for it. The email, wasn’t enough”, says Pha.
The district tells KIRO 7, they are not placing the teacher on administrative leave because they’re in good standing and have been extremely responsive to additional coaching.
That said, what happened was “an incredible display of poor judgment” and there is no question that writing that word was completely inappropriate.”