California English teacher is filmed repeating n-word and urging student to repeat it during lesson

An English teacher in California is facing backlash after repeatedly using the n-word and urging a student to do the same during a lesson about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

The Sequoia Middle School language arts teacher – who has not been identified – was discussing the famous Mark Twain novel when one of the 219 utterances of the racial slur came up. 

A black student who filmed the encounter – who is remaining anonymous – said that the teacher then ‘was trying to force’ one student to repeat the word. 

‘The teacher got in front of the class and she was saying that the word is just an English word and everybody can say it if she wants to, it’s in the dictionary, and people are oversensitive over the word,’ they said.

The video shows the teacher baiting the student: ‘Say it. N****r’ and then begins to smirk. ‘Why? You’re asking me, so go ahead and pronounce it: n****r.’

An english teacher in California is facing backlash after repeatedly using the n-word and urging a student to do the same during a lesson about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The student could do nothing but hang his head and remain silence. His classmates even begin to chuckle. 

‘She was trying to force him to say the word and she repeatedly kept saying it and she had a smirk on her face,’ added the filming student. ‘I was just thinking, ‘Dang, this teacher is out of her mind.”

The student claims the teacher repeated the slur approximately 15 times.

A parent shared the video on a local Facebook page on March 31. 

‘This took place at my Daughters school in Fontana at Sequoia Middle School teacher,’ Bianca Gibbons wrote. ‘Repost[,] please stop racism and verbal violence[,] bullying[.] this teacher should be fired[.] please help share this.’

The school district responded with a statement that didn’t appear clear on the context the teacher had gone on the rant.

‘While we acknowledge that this derogatory language comes from a novel first published in the late 1800s, and that historical context is important to consider when discussing literature, the district does not condone the language that was used in the video or using that language outside of the context of discussing the novel,’ they said. 

The teacher offered no comment when contacted by ABC7 Wednesday. Sequoia Middle School have yet to return requests for comment.

‘She was trying to force him to say the word and she repeatedly kept saying it and she had a smirk on her face,’ said the filming student. ‘I was just thinking, ‘Dang, this teacher is out of her mind”

The school district responded with a statement that didn’t appear clear on the context the teacher had gone on the rant

Caroline Rivera, a mother of two students at the school, called the comments ‘not acceptable.’

She was unsure what the school district should do to discipline the teacher. 

‘Pulling the teacher out? Maybe going through training again?’ suggested Rivera.

It comes during a series of debate in America and the United Kingdom over censorship of decades and centuries-old books.

Agatha Christie’s novels are the latest works to be rewritten to eliminate verbiage that has been deemed insensitive or inappropriate, it has emerged.

The Sequoia Middle School language arts teacher – who has not been identified – was discussing the famous Mark Twain novel when one of the 219 utterances of the racial slur came up

Twain’s book is considered a seminal classic but often creates controversy for its use of the n-word

Several of the passages in the author’s Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries have reportedly been reworked or stripped altogether from new editions of the books.

Publisher HarperCollins eliminated text containing ‘insults or references to ethnicity’, as well as descriptions of certain characters’ physiques, The Telegraph reported.

Christie’s works are the latest to undergo politically correct rewriting. It comes after books by Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming and Enid Blyton were edited over sensitivity concerns.