A mother of a 13-year-old isn't pleased with how her local school district responded to her son's white teacher telling the boy that he could be lynched for not focusing on his schoolwork, according to WLWT Cincinnati.
The boy's mother, Tanisha Agee-Bell, said that her son came home from Mason Middle School, which is just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, upset.
"[My son told us] his teacher had told him that if he didn't get back on task, that his friends were going to lynch him, and we thought he must have misunderstood," Agee-Bell told WXIX FOX 19.
Concerned, she contacted her son's teacher, Renee Thole, who is white. Agee-Bell says that Thole told the mother that her exact words were: "If he didn't get back on task, his friends were going to form an angry mob and lynch him."
Agee-Bell says she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I was just taken aback because I said, 'What you said is actually worse than what he said you said,'" she said.
Agee-Bell was upset, and took her concerns to the school district, expressing her belief that that Thole's actions warranted her being removed from the classroom, particularly given that she teaches history.
"For her not to understand that the words that she said were a direct pull from what has been, what was a practice in the United States, is unacceptable," Agee-Bell said, according to WLWT. "She shouldn't be in the classroom. She shouldn't be in the classroom at all. And I'm not saying she should never go back in the classroom, but until she can demonstrate that she understands what the impact of the language that she used and what she did can have, has had on my son, has on his peers and is having on our community, then she doesn't need to be in the classroom."
To FOX, Agee-Bell added, "I don't know if she's racist, but I know that what she said is racist."
Mason School District told Cincinnati.com that its investigation found that Thole did indeed chastise Agnee-Bell's son using the words she is accused of using. However, it does not agree that Thole's comments are enough for her to be fired. The district has not removed Thole, and has yet say whether any disciplinary action will be taken against her.
"Growing Greatness Together is our district’s vision," the district said in a statement. "But, we have not arrived. We have work to do. Sometimes we mess up. Clearly, that was the case here. And, even though this teacher did not set out to hurt a child — clearly that happened too. It was amazing that this young black man was brave enough to confront his teacher when the incident happened."
For now, Agnee-Bell's son has been removed from Thole's class, and placed in another section. This has upset her as well. She says that moving him into a class that he isn't as familiar with is unfair.
"The hardest part is that even though he knows he did nothing wrong, he still is punished because he lost opportunity with his friends," Agee-Bell said.
In its statement, the district also tried to make it clear that it takes racially offensive comments seriously: "We have seen an uptick in the number of racially and culturally insensitive comments in our schools and community. Sometimes these are said out of genuine ignorance. For example, some students contend that they are not being offensive if they say n***a vs. the n-word. As a district, we want to be very clear. We are not okay normalizing racial slurs. Anyone who does so faces disciplinary action. Our district will continue to invest in training and resources on culturally proficient practices for administrators, educators and classified staff members that lift up our district’s values."
Agee-Bell doesn't believe that the district's training is enough, however.
"I believe Mason is a community that is okay with the way it is," she said, adding, "I want the district to take ownership of this and to work to make the environment better for all students. They said they want to have a safe nurturing environment for all students. My son doesn't feel safe and that's not okay."
