Missouri high-schooler suspended for recording teacher using racial slur

A Missouri high school sophomore who recorded a teacher using a racial slur during class has been suspended for three days.

Mary Walton, a student at Glendale high school in Springfield, said that she was told on Friday to not return to school until Wednesday because she violated school district policy on inappropriate use of electronic devices, the Springfield News-Leader reported.

The teacher, whose name has not been released, was put on paid administrative leave after saying the N-word on Tuesday. CNN reported the teacher later resigned.

Walton’s attorney, Natalie Hull, said to the Associated Press she planned to issue a “demand letter” in an effort to get the suspension lifted so Walton could return to class sooner. Hull told the Washington Post that Walton was essentially a whistleblower who collected evidence of an authority figure’s misconduct, and allowing her punishment to stand would inflict a “chilling effect” on students speaking out about wrongdoing in the future.

The family also wants an apology, Hull told the AP.

Walton said the teacher used the N-word six times – two of which were recorded on her video. Walton wasn’t sure what prompted the exchange. Yet she said the teacher asked some of her classmates why they were allowed to use the slur but he wasn’t, which academics have said is a racist argument meant to minimize the Black community’s efforts to reappropriate the word.

Walton said the teacher told her to put her phone away when he realized Walton was recording him. When she refused, he told her to go to the office but stopped short of sending her.

Walton sent the video to her mom and shared it with one friend. Walton said she didn’t upload it, but it spread “really, really fast”.

Glendale’s principal, Josh Groves, said in a message to school employees and families that the comments expressed in the video were inappropriate and did not meet the Springfield district’s professional standards.

District officials said they could not publicly discuss student disciplinary actions. Nonetheless, according to the Post, Groves said in an email to school parents on Monday that he was “confident that the district appropriately and promptly handled all matters related to what occurred at Glendale”.

“When students have concerns, they should follow the appropriate steps for reporting,” Groves’s email said.

Welborn said she understood that the district does not want students making “vigilante” videos of any slight infraction by teachers. But she said this teacher’s actions needed to be brought to light.

“What you are tacitly doing is discouraging students from reporting whenever a teacher does something outrageous,” she said to the AP.