Posted on 08/01/2007 4:47:17 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
The Pinellas School Board on Tuesday approved a one-day suspension for a white teacher who referred to the hair of an African American girl as "nappy."
The board voted 5-2 in favor of the suspension and diversity training for Belcher Elementary teacher Porsha Call.
Board members Linda Lerner and Janet Clark voted against the unpaid suspension, saying they did not consider the word racially offensive. "I don't use the term nappy. I've used the word frizzy for my own hair at times," said Lerner, who agreed with a related recommendation that Call receive diversity training. "I did not realize it was an offensive word."
Board member Janet Clark agreed, saying she found a Web site called “A Nappy Hair Affair,” which seemed to celebrate the word.
"I don't know that the word is racially offensive," Clark said. "I'm not black, so I can't speak from personal experience. But it is an adjective, correct? It describes your hair."
Mary Brown, the board's only black member, said the term has been used in a negative way to describe black people.
Board member Nancy Bostock noted that the teacher signed a document agreeing to the suspension. She said the one-day suspension reflected that the remark was not as offensive as some others. The typical punishment for a racially offensive remark is three to five days, she noted.
Officials said the remark violated a district policy prohibiting employees from making "inappropriate or disparaging remarks to or about students or exposing a student to unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement."
According to an account by the district's Office of Professional Standards, a student asked Call why another teacher was combing the hair of an African American girl. Call responded, "She is trying to do something to her nappy hair." Another teacher reported the remark to an administrator.
Call, a veteran teacher with a good employment record, told investigators she did not know the term was offensive.
The term "nappy" became the topic of a national debate in April when radio personality Don Imus used it as part of a larger statement criticizing the Rutgers University women's basketball team. Imus was fired for making a racial slur.
Best thing that could happen here would be that the girl whose hair was being combed, or her parents, just speak up and say they weren’t offended because they understand that the teacher was only making an innocent remark and meant no harm.
But of course that never happens. That would make too much sense.
Free country?
Free speech?
N? N?
I can’t understand the big deal. The teacher is right, it is an adjective to describe hair.
Those Kindergarden teachers better not say nappy time!
“I did not realize it was an offensive word.”
I guess she did not watch the 24 hour news coverage of Imus. I think she must have known.
(from "A Fish Called Wanda") "Why would they name their daughter after a car?"
Seems like an illiterate try at 'Portia'...IMHO
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