High school teacher used racial slur at student leaving class, Illinois district says

A high school teacher has been placed on paid leave after a widely circulated video shows him calling a student a racial slur, according to an Illinois school district.

Multiple videos shared on Facebook show the interaction between the teacher and student at Kankakee High School, about 60 miles south of Chicago.

The teacher and student appeared to be arguing during what Kankakee School District 111 Superintendent Genevra Walters called “a minor conflict.” When the student began walking out of the classroom, the teacher used an explicit phrase, which included a racist word.

Walters said in a statement on Thursday, Oct. 20, that the district “is disappointed with the incident.”

“KHS administrators have collected statements from the students, talked with the students in the classroom and reviewed several videos” Walters said. “The principal will make a recommendation to the human resources department followed by a recommendation concerning disciplinary action to the Kankakee School District 111 Board of Education.”

The school district did not identify the teacher, who the Daily Journal reported is in his first year at the school.

Further disciplinary action could be recommended by the school board as early as Monday, Oct. 24, the superintendent told the Daily Journal.

Students were heard laughing in the video, but Walters called it “nervous laughter.” She said she was “proud of how the students handled the situation.”

“The students in the classroom reported that they were shocked and had never experienced a teacher using that terminology towards a student,” said the superintendent.

The student toward whom the racist comment was directed told WLS he was “still in shock.”

“It made me feel like less than a Black man, a young Black man at that, from a small community that’s trying to do the most for that community,” the student said.

This story was originally published October 21, 2022 at 2:00 PM with the headline "High school teacher used racial slur at student leaving class, Illinois district says."