Mary Walton thought her teacher repeatedly saying a racist slur in class last week was wrong, so the 15-year-old sophomore at Glendale High School in Springfield, Mo., pulled out her phone and started filming, the student’s lawyer said.
“Put your phone away,” he told her, according to video reviewed by The Washington Post.
“No,” Mary said.
“Then go to the office,” he responded.
Days later, she was suspended for making the 55-second video, according to her lawyer. Mary and her mother, Kate Welborn, 44, are challenging the punishment and demanding the district apologize. Mary’s lawyer, Natalie Hull, said that the sophomore was essentially acting as a whistleblower by collecting evidence of an authority figure’s wrongdoing and that punishing her will have a “chilling effect” on students inclined to do so in the future.
“This kid did what we want people to do — see something, say something,” Hull said, adding: “Now we’re telling students, ‘If you see something, don’t show it, because then you’ll get suspended.’”
Officials maintain that, although the teacher’s actions were inexcusable, students are prohibited from recording in class without prior approval.
On Monday, Principal Josh Groves announced that the teacher, who was initially placed on administrative leave, is no longer employed by the district. He has not been publicly identified. Officials said that while federal law prevented them from talking about student discipline, the student handbook is clear about the consequences of inappropriately using cellphones and other electronic devices.
Officials are “confident that the district appropriately and promptly handled all matters related to what occurred at Glendale,” Groves said Monday in an email to parents. “We want our schools to be safe and welcoming learning environments. When students have concerns, they should follow the appropriate steps for reporting.”
Students are allowed to have cellphones “as long as they are not disruptive to the educational process or in violation of site use procedures,” according to district policy. The student handbook prohibits using them to record faculty, staffers or other students on campus without prior approval. Punishment for a first offense ranges from a meeting between parents and a teacher or administrator, at the low end, up to a three-day, out-of-school suspension, according to the handbook.
The geometry teacher had already said the n-word several times on May 9 before Mary started filming, Hull said in a news release. In Mary’s video, the teacher can be heard justifying his use of the slur. He told a student that, although he doesn’t like the word, it’s just as derogatory when a Black person uses it to address another Black person. A student explained that plantation owners used the word to demean and dehumanize enslaved people.
The teacher started to ask a question that included the n-word but was cut off.
“Don’t say it right now as a teacher if you want to keep your job,” a student responded. “This isn’t a threat.”
“I’m not calling anyone a [n-word],” the teacher continued, repeating the slur. “I can say the word.”
That’s when he looked up, pointed at Mary, ordered her to put her phone away and directed her to the office when she refused. But Mary stayed in class as the teacher pivoted back to the lesson. Meanwhile, she sent the video to her mother and a friend, asking for advice about what to do next.
Within a half-hour, the video ended up on social media. Mary finished the day without contacting school administrators and attended classes normally over the next two days, Hull said. Meanwhile, concerned parents contacted the school district, leading officials to send an email to parents, denouncing the teacher’s comments as “inexcusable” and announcing that he’d been placed on administrative leave.
On Friday morning, Mary found out school officials had also given her a three-day suspension, which ends Tuesday.
Hull said the maximum punishment was not fair in Mary’s case. School officials never talked to her to get her side of things and spoke with her mother only after handing down the punishment, Hull said. Mary didn’t post the video to social media and doesn’t know who did, her lawyer said.
Dan Shelley, president and CEO of the Radio Television Digital News Association, who grew up attending Springfield public schools, soon sent a letter to Superintendent Grenita Lathan expressing “serious concerns” the association has about Mary’s punishment. Mary was exercising her First Amendment right when she started recording — to hold a public official in a position of power to account, no less, according to Shelley.
“She should be congratulated, not punished,” he wrote in his letter. “As best we can tell, the student in question is not a journalist by vocation or even avocation. But nonetheless recording a clearly newsworthy incident she — knowingly or unknowingly — became a journalist by chronicling an important event.”
Mary’s still processing what happened and struggling to see what she did wrong, Hull said. Her mother is angry at school officials and proud of her daughter, Hull added.
“Even though Mary got in trouble, her mother believes this is frankly good trouble,” she said.
Hull said district officials are blindly adhering to the letter of the policy without taking into account the larger picture.
“Language can be harmful, and Mary captured proof of her teacher, a person who is supposed to protect children, harming them through his use of a racial slur,” she said in a news release. “If he had been hitting a student — or worse — would the school have reacted the same?”
