Teacher Repeatedly Calls Students ‘N*gger’ Because They Didn’t Like ‘African-American’

A substitute teacher admits calling two of her students “n*gger” after being told they didn’t like the term “African-American,” because they are not of African descent.

Nestled in the northeast corner of the Land of Lincoln is a small village of about 40,000 people. Carol Stream, Illinois’ motto is “a great place to live and work,” and indeed, CNN‘s Money Magazine included Carol Stream among its 100 “best places to live” list just three years ago.

Right now, however, four middle school students, and likely many of their friends, might not be feeling that way.

A substitute teacher admits to calling Mea Thompson and Zaria Daniel “n*gger” during a discussion about the Emancipation Proclamation last week. The eighth grade students were visibly upset when WMAQ interviewed them outside Jay Stream Middle School. They say the teacher first called them “African-American,” but Mea Thompson explains that she and three of her classmates who “were sitting there got offended because none of us are from Africa. I’m Jamaican. So we said, ‘Can you please not call us that?’ and she continued to call us that.”

And that’s when the substitute teacher used the “N” word.

“She said, ‘It’s the politically correct term.’ Then she said, ‘Well, back then you guys would be considered the N-word,'” Thompson says.

“We were so shocked and we were like, ‘What? Excuse me? That’s not correct to call us that.’ She was like, ‘Well, back then that’s what African-Americans were called.’”

WMAQ reports the students “said the teacher used the slur repeatedly over the 80-minute class period, also referring to them as slaves. One student threw down her books and others started crying, the students claim.”

“I just want people to know how much it affected us and I don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” said student Zaria Daniel.

But Thompson’s mother, Shayna Thompson, says the punishment isn’t enough.

“After the shock and hurt, I’m angry,” she said. “It’s a new world, and the people of the past that still hang onto hatred and bigotry don’t belong in this world anymore.”

She said she is looking into whether the teacher can be charged with disorderly conduct or if the incident may be considered a hate crime.

 

Image and video: NBC Chicago/WMAQ
Hat tip: David Edwards at Raw Story