A teacher at a high school in Alabama was put on administrative leave with pay after fully admitting to using a racial slur during class last week.
According to AL.com, Hoover High School Superintendent Kathy Murphy confirmed that the teacher, identified as Teddie Butcher, admitted to using the word “nigger” while asking students to turn down music they were playing in class on Friday.
Shenita Morrow said that her daughter, who is a senior at the school, was playing “Dear Mama” by Tupac Shakur while working on a project. Morrow said that students are usually allowed to play music during the food-and-nutrition class.
When Butcher, who is white, returned to the class and heard the famous Tupac song, she demanded that Morrow’s daughter “turn the nigger tunes off.”
A Board of Education meeting was held on Monday, after which, the superintendent said, she was told that there was profane language in the song (which is not true, for the record). Morrow also refuted those claims.
The mother is taking issue with the “comfort level” Butcher expressed in using the slur in front of a group of students.
Butcher did apologize to students Monday, but again, she’s basically on paid vacation following the incident.
“After meeting with her, it’s just baffling to me how someone does not understand the severity of the weight of that word,” Morrow said.
The incident remains under investigation, according to the report.
Read more at AL.com.