An investigation by the Muscogee County School District determined that the teacher used “a racial slur in an attempt to explain to a group of elementary school students that this same word should not be tolerated.” The teacher acknowledged using the N-word Sept. 1 and was suspended for two days with no pay.
The district also moved her to a non-classroom position, placed a letter of reprimand in her personnel file and required she take “cultural competency” training. But the board voted seven-to-one (with one abstaining) for the zero-tolerance policy after previously hearing 11 of 13 residents demand the teacher be fired at a meeting in October.
Nathan Frazier and his wife, Equisha, told WTVM in September that their 9-year-old daughter, Harmonie, told them that another student said to her “she’s glad that she’s not Black. She’s glad she’s white and not Black like them.”
Harmonie’s parents said their daughter told them that she and two other students were talking during physical education class when that student made those comments. She and the two other fourth-grade students then relayed to their homeroom teacher what the other student said.
“The thing that really really shocked me was when the teacher leans into the girls and she kind of caressed my daughter’s face and says, ‘Oh, you’re a beautiful girl, but at least she didn’t call you a dumb black and the ’n’ word…When my daughter told me that I was completely shocked,” Nathan Frazier said.