Photo Courtesy of KXAN
Last December, a Black student at Doris Miller Junior High School in San Marcos, Texas, was subjected to being called a racial slur by a white classmate, and her teacher allowed the egregious act. The teen was the only Black person in her class.
According to KXAN, Azariah Fennell was sitting in class when the unidentified boy passed by her classroom, opened the door and yelled, “What’s up, my n***a?”
Another student in the class responded to the imbecile, saying, “Hey! What’s up?”
Azariah’s peers reacted to the outburst. One student addressed the offending party saying, “Dude, you can’t say that word.”
The news outlet reported that instead of the teacher reprimanding the child for using the slur and disrupting students– the educator opted to double down on the bigoted moment to give the class a lesson on how to be a racist.
“If black people can say it,” the teacher allegedly said, “then white people can say it, too.”
Whew, chile!
On Monday, Azariah recalled the hurtful incident while at a park and began to cry.
Tasha Fennell, the teen’s mom, told KXAN that it was the first time Azariah has been emotional since the incident occurred.
“How it makes me feel, I don’t want someone else to go through the feeling that I had to go through,” the middle schooler told the news channel.
Azariah’s mother filed formal complaints with the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School Board (CISD) in January.
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She asked for a formal apology and unconscious bias and cultural responsiveness training for educators and administrators within the school district.
“I just don’t feel like it was her place to make the decision to say that in front of impressionable kids,” she said.
The school board has complied with Tasha’s requests, although it seemingly shifted culpability from the school’s racist teacher to Azariah. The statement also implied that it was the teen’s job to know the right time to discuss being Black.
According to KXAN, the San Marcos CISD did issue a statement.
“It will be communicated to Azariah that the Miller community understands the importance of equity, and the goal is to be more sensitive to the topic and utilize the experience as a teachable moment in the future,” the statement said. “Azariah and her friends were discussing the Black Lives Matter movement when the incident occurred. The timing of the discussion may not have been appropriate, but the nature of the conversation is relevant to Azariah’s cultural background and could be acknowledged.”
“Principal Jessie Gipprich Martin will pull Azariah during the school day and speak to her about the incident and how it made her feel.”
The San Marcos CISD has launched an outside equity audit of schools within the district which will take three years to publish its findings.
Since the incident, the district’s superintendent, Michael Cardona, has tapped Tasha to participate in a monthly leadership council to address equity and diversity concerns.
“At this point, we’re just looking for respect, acknowledgment, and for the uncomfortable conversations to be had,” Tasha said.