Thursday, March 28, 2024

Black Mother Outraged After Teacher Calls Her Hispanic Son ‘Mad Mexican…Go Back to Mexico’

*A mother in Philadelphia is outraged after her son came home upset saying a teacher hurled racist remarks at him, taunted him and called him a “mad Mexican.”

Janice Gullette-Pugh, 70, who lives in the Eastwick section of the city, is the legal guardian of 17-year-old Tony Cuevas, a 11th grade student at Bartram Motivation High School.

Pugh and her husband Gregory have raised Cuevas since he was 6-years-old. And in a city plagued with violence, Pugh said she never thought her son would suffer hurt or discrimination in a safe place – at school – and at the hands of his teacher.

But on October 2, Cuevas, who is Hispanic, said his AP English teacher Sheldon Jackson, crossed the line and took aim at him and mocked his heritage, much like President Trump does toward people of color on a regular basis. Jackson, a Black man has been a teacher at Motivation since 2009, according to his Facebook bio.

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Source: Google images

Cuevas said he was in his third-period class when Jackson paused a video that he started for a lesson, to do a roll call.

“He paused to take role and he called me Antonio… and I said, that’s not my name, please stop calling me that,” said Cuevas whose birth name is actually Tony and not a shortened version of another name.

“So, he got mad,” Cuevas said. That’s when he said Jackson launched into racist taunts. “He called me, ‘The mad Mexican.’” Cuevas pointed out that he is Puerto Rican.

Cuevas said the taunting didn’t stop there. Jackson then went into a racist tirade Donald Trump style.

“Then he started saying it was Taco Tuesday, Taco Tuesday repeatedly and started yelling ‘Go back to Mexico, you fake Mexican and eat your Tacos!’”

Cuevas said he was embarrassed in front of his peers after the teacher went on a vitriolic and racist rant.

“He embarrassed me in front of the whole class. It made me mad.”

“I got a little mad and said a couple curse words and I said alright I know what I’m going to do and I’m going to leave.”

So, Cuevas said he left the class and went to the Principal Rennu Teli-Johnson’s office and reported Jackson. Johnson reportedly then called the teacher in for a conference to discuss the incident.

“First the principal asked what happened,” Cuevas said.

“He (Jackson) basically apologized,” Cuevas said. EURWeb/Electronic Urban Report was unable to reach Jackson for comment.

Pugh complained to school officials, who began investigating. But Pugh said an apology is not enough and she wants Jackson to be fired.

Pugh said the principal at Motivation sat down with her for a meeting but she’s concerned the school is trying to cover up the incident and pacify them.

Usually, when educators make racist comments that become public, especially toward students, the repercussions are swift.

A few years ago an Ohio teacher was fired for telling a black student who aspired to be president someday, “We do not need another black president.” Last year a Mississippi teacher was fired for saying on her Facebook page that “Blacks need to move back to Africa.”

But Pugh said Jackson was back in his AP class teaching on Wednesday, the very next day after the incident happened. However, Pugh said the school later pulled Jackson from his class and said that he won’t resume teaching until the investigation is completed. That still angers Pugh.

“He doesn’t need to teach at all,” she said.

“I feel as though for him to be a professional teacher. That was not professional and that was very racist and as a teacher he didn’t have no feelings for Tony,” Pugh said. “He didn’t consider Tony’s feelings. He was just out of order and it’s unacceptable, whatever the reason was. It’s unacceptable for him as a teacher to make those racial slurs like that.”

Pugh said she’s also deeply concerned because principal Johnson tried to scare Cuevas out of speaking to the media.

“The principal also said this is going to look bad on her as the principal and it’s going to shed bad light on the school. She said it was a lot of stress and that they would probe into his life,” Pugh alleged.

Cuevas chimed in: “She said if you go on TV, it would pull down the school. I said there’s only one person that’s going to bring down a group of people,” he said referring to Jackson.

To add insult to injury, last year Cuevas said he had a similar incident with the same teacher and the school allegedly swept it under the rug. He said he reported it to the assistant to the principal but nothing happened.

“I didn’t want to be the reason for someone losing their job. But it’s inappropriate. Just because I didn’t make a big deal out it last time doesn’t mean you can keep doing it. I’m hurt by what happened,” Cuevas admits.

Pugh said she’s had to take Cuevas out of his AP class, not something she wanted to do but Jackson is the only teacher for the class and she said she wasn’t given much of a choice.

“I think they are protecting the teacher instead of protecting Tony,” she said.

H. Lee Whack Jr., Spokesman and Deputy Chief of Communications for the Philadelphia School District, tells us the incident is currently under investigation.

We as a school a school district embrace all cultures. Philadelphia is very diverse and it’s important to us that students, no matter where they’re from or what their background is, that they have an opportunity to have a quality education here, he said in a statement. 

This matter is being investigated. There’s going to be another step in that investigation, so I don’t have all the information about what’s going to be done. Some of it will be a personnel issue. This incident is not something that is acceptable and we are investigating and will be making a decision based on what we find.

In the meantime, this particular student will not be in this teacher’s class. There will no interaction between them.

Pugh plans to file a formal complaint with school district officials.

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