A California teacher was placed on administrative leave for a second time because of racist comments she made to her students.
The unidentified teacher is employed by the Palmdale School District, where the student body is more than 70% Latinx, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Students at Sage Magnet Academy said their history teacher was an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump and had paraphernalia throughout her classroom. She also made offensive comments, reports ABC7.
"She would always talk about Donald Trump. She would make comments about how it was right for him to build a wall and to block all the immigrants out of this country," Jossylin Villegas, one of her students, said.
The teacher also made disparaging comments about Latinx people and claimed she wanted to “bring back slavery.”
"She says we don't belong in this country. She would say that we would use the government for welfare and food stamps, we would take white people's jobs," Yaretzy Martinez, another student, said.
“It would be uncomfortable for me as a child of an undocumented person to go in that class and suck up all her words and her nasty comments,” Villegas said. “Imagine being an hour in that class and having to hear her talk about how we shouldn’t be here, about how we live off of white people’s money and we’re just stealing their jobs.”
Other students accused the teacher of flunking them because of their race and intimidating them after they requested to be removed from her class.
The students reported the teacher in October, and she was placed on administrative leave. She returned on December 13. Less than a week later, she was in trouble again. On Friday, Ryan Beardsley, the school district’s assistant superintendent of human resources, confirmed the teacher was placed on leave again.
“Employees are entitled to contractual rights, labor law and due process,” he said. The district hired a third-party to conduct an independent investigation. Even though he was reluctant to share details about her behavior, Beardsley insisted the district had zero-tolerance for it.
"Regardless of whether it was a joke or not, comments are comments, and racial comments are unacceptable in any way shape or form,” he said.
The school district provided counselors and access to mental health assistance to the students.
The district is on winter break and will return to school on January 13. The students hope their teacher will not be there.
“We don’t want her at any other school because we don’t think she’s ready to teach,” Martinez said. “She said what she said, and she’s not going to change her mind.”