Categories: ThecounT

Spanish Teacher Booted For Calling Student ‘Negro’

A Spanish teacher got her butt fired after being accused of using “racist words in class.” The junior-high school teacher has filed a lawsuit contesting the allegations saying that she was fired from P.S. 211 in the Bronx in March 2012 because of a misunderstanding over the word “negro,” in other words, lost in translation.. Did I mention the teacher is also black?

The non-tenured teacher, 65-year-old Petrona Smith, maintains that she was instructing her class about how to say the various basic colors in Spanish, reports the New York Post. The word “negro” naturally came up because “negro” is the Spanish word for “black.”

“They haven’t even accounted for how absurd it is for someone who’s black to be using a racial slur to a student,” Reid told the Post.

A seventh-grade student in the class took offense at the term, however, believing the word to be a racial slur. It’s not clear if Smith directed the term at the student. Whatever the case, he reported the incident to school officials.

Smith, a native of the West Indies, is black. And to top it all off, P.S. 211 is bilingual.

Smith’s attorney, Shaun Reid, called the charge that allegedly led to his client’s termination ridiculous.

The Post notes that Smith also claims that students hurled insults at her, calling her “f*ing monkey” and other abusive names. Smith hasn’t been able to find another job since she was sacked.

Read more here.

THECOUNT.COM "ALWAYS OPEN! Since 2005!"

this is why i'm hot

View Comments

  • The school administrators should be fired and banned from the education field for being Dumbasses!

Recent Posts

Tuskegee Homecoming Mass Shooting: La’Tavion Johnson ID’d as Victim Jaquez Myrick Arrested ‘Machine Gun’

TUSKEGEE, AL. (THECOUNT) -- Tragedy struck the Tuskegee University Homecoming weekend when 18-year-old La'Tavion Johnson…

1 day ago

MS HS Student Athlete Callie Pounders ID’d As Victim In Monday Corinth Fatal Vehicle Crash

ALCORN COUNTY, MS. (THECOUNT) -- A tragic accident claimed the life of Corinth High School…

1 week ago

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Arrested For Sex Trafficking Of Young Men ‘High-Profile Parties’

BROOKLYN, NY. (THECOUNT) -- Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, along with his partner…

3 weeks ago

Female Navy Pilots ID’d As Victims In Mount Rainier Double-Fatal Jet Crash

MOUNT RAINIER, WA. (THECOUNT) -- Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay P. Evans, 31, and Lt. Serena N.…

3 weeks ago

CHILLING: Liam Payne 911 Call ‘He’s Breaking Everything In The Room’

PALERMO, BUENOS AIRES. (THECOUNT) -- Former One Direction star Liam Payne has tragically passed away…

4 weeks ago

GRAPHIC: KY Woman Charged in Mother’s Grisly Murder and Dismemberment ‘Baked Body Parts’

MOUNT OLIVET, KY. (THECOUNT) -- In a disturbing case out of Kentucky, 32-year-old Torilena May…

4 weeks ago