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‘Teacher Of The Year’ Recipient Tells Student To ‘Go Back To Mexico’

COMMENTARY | An eighth-grade math teacher in Texas, who happens to be a two-time “Teacher of the Year” winner, has been suspended after she told a student who requested a Spanish-language Title 1 form and stated that he was Mexican, to “Go back to Mexico.”

Her excuse?

“It was a very, very hard week, the end of six weeks. It was late in the day. It was a Friday. We were on the third day of the first curriculum assessment and I knew it wasn’t going well. It was just an extremely bad day.”

I don’t care if she had Tourette’s, that phrase should not come out of any teacher’s mouth. She is supposed to be someone that students could look up to and can trust. She shouldn’t take her “bad day” out on any student like that.

Sure, the student was being disruptive (and was possibly trying to get attention) and kept insisting he receive the Spanish-language version of the form after she told him he could receive it from the front office; however, kids, especially in middle school, are going to be disruptive. She, being a teacher for over 24 years, should know that and should have already learned by now how to handle such a situation in an appropriate manner. Couldn’t she simply supply the form for him from the office?

To be honest, I do not think this was a simple “slip-of-the-tongue.” For her to instantaneously (her words) say something so offensive as a response to this student proves to me that she may have been thinking that all along. After all, she did call a group of disruptive Mexican students “the Mexican mafia.” 
That is a dangerous sentiment for a teacher in Texas to have.