“An Indiana elementary school teacher has been suspended after telling his fifth-grade class late last month that it was ‘acting like monkeys in a zoo,'” reports The College Fix.
The unnamed Merrillville Intermediate School teacher, whose race has not been reported, “admitted fault” to administrators, but said “the comments were not intended to have racial implications,” the Daily Mail reports.
Students “almost immediately” reported the teacher to the principal, says Merrillville Community School District Superintendent Dexter Suggs, who is black.
The student body at Merrillville Intermediate is about two-thirds black, one-fifth Hispanic, and nine percent white. 64 percent of students are not proficient in math, and 65% are not proficient in reading.
The Chicago Tribune quoted the Superintendent saying his school system “take[s] matters like this extremely seriously,” and its investigation is “moving forward ‘with a sense of urgency.’”
The College Fix reports that
One parent said “This is what [the teacher] thinks about our kids. I’m not getting over this … now we see this coming from the president also” (a reference to a video posted by President Trump depicting various politicians as animals from “The Lion King,” including Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys).
Another parent claimed the teacher previously had uttered a “similar remark” in class.
School board member DeLena Thomas said the episode is “not something we take lightly. We’re preparing our kids for a world that is racially tense right now.”
Gary, Indiana NAACP President Steven Mays criticized the principal and the superintendent for letting the teacher back in class after the episode. “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,” Mays declared. “Do your job … so we can tamp this down and lower the temperature. To not talk to [parents] is insulting.”
Superintendent Suggs said the school system recognizes “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.”
If the class included white kids as well as black kids, then telling the entire class that they were “acting like monkeys in a zoo” should not be viewed as racial in nature, or as racial harassment. See Caver v. City of Trenton, 420 F.3d 243 (3rd Cir. 2005) (comments are not “racial harassment” unless they target a victim based on his or her race, and are severe or pervasive).
Some boisterous children do act like monkeys in a zoo. And it is hypersensitive and intolerant to punish a teacher for pointing that out.
