Two teachers from New York were terminated after images of nooses were found displayed in a collage in their classroom. A third teacher was suspended over the display.
News 12 reports an image featuring two nooses, the words "Back to school necklaces" and the words "ha" and "#yes" was found on the desk of a teacher at Long Island, New York's Roosevelt Middle School during Black History Month.
The photo made its way to the chaplain of the Roosevelt Chamber of Commerce, Arthur Mackey Jr., who stated his disapproval and expressed his desire for the termination of each teacher involved. The school district was also made aware of the display in February and at the time said it took "appropriate action" against the "isolated group of teachers" involved without specifying what that action was, NBC News reports.
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Tuesday night, the Roosevelt Union Free School District school board voted 4-0 in favor of firing two of the teachers found to be involved with the racist display. Another teacher, who had been on administrative leave, was placed on paid suspension. The two terminated educators were nontenured but had been working in the school district for nearly three years. The suspended teacher is tenured, and their fate will be determined in a hearing in the coming weeks.
Parents who spoke to News 12 approved of the decision.
"I'm glad that something was done because sometimes in poorer neighborhoods, nothing is addressed at all," one parent said.
Students, however, appeared to be split on the topic, with one stating they found the fired teachers to be kind and helpful while affirming the image had no place in school.
"The school board's decision is helping us move forward in the right direction," Mackey Jr. said following the vote, adding he believes "a strong emphasis on Black history [needs to] be revived in the schools."
The New York State Education Department reports Roosevelt Middle School has a student body comprised almost entirely of Black (45 percent) and Latinx (55 percent) students.
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