FARMINGTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — On Wednesday, a special board meeting is taking place in the Farmington Public Schools district. One issue up for discussion is a teacher's alleged use of a racial slur at East Middle School, according to the district.
Parents 7 Action News spoke with said they are hoping a clear plan of action comes out of the meeting.
“It came to our attention that a teacher said the N-word in the middle school," Thomas Hull, a parent, told 7 Action News.
Hull is the president of the Farmington African American Parent Network.
According to a letter the principal sent home to parents on Jan. 26, a teacher used “racially insensitive language” while disciplining a student for calling another student the N-word.
Santoria Shepherd, a parent and vice president of the Farmington African American Parent Network, said the use of the N-word by the teacher is verbally abusive and a failure to de-escalate.
“There’s been excuses for their behavior in terms of people saying, ‘we’re repeating it because the kids say it' or 'the kids heard another kid say it.’ And so, what we want is we want our teachers to be held accountable," she explained.
“This has happened before. This is not a once incidence. It’s been going on for years," Shepherd said.
In November 2020, the superintendent resigned and accused a board member of harassing him and calling him racist toward Black students and staff.
In February 2022, a substitute teacher at the high school used of a racial slur. The incident was caught on tape, and it triggered a student walk out.
“I know they can’t control everybody’s mouth and thoughts and everything but however, you can start really enforcing the rules that are in the policies that you put in place,” Hull said.
7 Action News reached out to the district for comment. The district spokesperson said the superintendent was not available for an interview on Wednesday. However, the spokesperson did forward the letter sent home to parents. It explains the teacher was removed from the classroom as the district looked into the matter.
School board President Dr. Cheryl Blau told 7 Action News she and the board vice president had just returned from a diversity, equity, and inclusion conference the prior week.
During the Feb. 6 school board meeting, Blau explained recommendations from the equity conference that the district has already implemented and continues to implement.
She read, “Is DEI training being provided on an ongoing basis to district staff, teachers, principals, and administrators in the areas of implicit bias, micro-aggresions and culturally responsive teaching? Yes.”
Shepherd said, “It’s great that you’re doing the training, but you have to be trained to say don’t use racial slurs.”
Hull said, "We have to change the culture. OK, by changing the culture, then these teachers would not use these certain words.”
