A Grade 10 high school student in Missouri was handed a three-day suspension after she videotaped her teacher repeatedly using a racial slur.
Mary Walton, 15, was suspended from Glendale High School in Springfield on Friday for improperly using an electronic device in class, the school district said. The teacher, who reportedly used the n-word multiple times during a classroom rant on May 9, was initially put on paid administrative leave.
On Tuesday, it was reported that the teacher, whose name was not released, had resigned. He had worked for the school district since 2008.
Kate Wellborn, Walton’s mother, said in an interview that she was “genuinely shocked” her daughter received the harshest possible punishment for recording the teacher during class. She said her daughter’s video clearly showed the situation and context of what happened.
“To punish someone … who does the right thing, it’s absurd,” Wellborn said.
Walton’s suspension quickly prompted outrage; even the Radio Television Digital News Association went to bat for her. The organization’s president and CEO Dan Shelley wrote a letter to the Springfield superintendent, imploring her to overturn Walton’s punishment in the name of free speech.
Walton is a “lawful whistleblower, not a delinquent,” Shelley wrote in his letter. “She should be congratulated, not punished.”
Natalie Hull, the family’s lawyer, said she asked the school district to expunge the suspension from Walton’s record and allow her to return to school on Monday. The request was denied.
Walton’s three-day suspension was set to end on Wednesday. As of Tuesday, the district has not apologized or removed the suspension, her mother said.
Walton told her mother and others that she started videotaping her geometry teacher after he said the n-word several times. Her video, which was obtained by CNN, captures him saying it twice. The teacher stopped when he saw that she was recording.
Hull wrote in a statement that Walton began to film “the video of her geometry teacher after he interrupted a conversation between students and talked about why he could not use a specific racial slur when people of colour could do so without causing offense.”
Walton sent the video to her mother, a friend and a student in the video to ask for advice on what to do. She did not post it to social media, and it’s unclear how it spread, said Hull.
Walton was preparing to head to school Friday when she and her mother were notified she had been suspended. Wellborn had to go to the school to find out the reason for the suspension.
Stephen Hall, a spokesperson for the school district, said in a statement that the district could not discuss specifics about its actions for the “unacceptable classroom incident.”
He said the student handbook is clear about consequences for inappropriate use of electronic devices, which would consider if other minors were identifiable and suffered because of a “violation of privacy.” A line in the student handbook also expressly prohibits “audio and visual recording of faculty or staff in the classroom; acts of violence; (and) disruptions to the school environment.”
“SPS is confident that the district appropriately and promptly handled all matters related to what occurred at Glendale,” Hall said. “We want our schools to be safe and welcoming learning environments. When students have concerns, they should follow the appropriate steps for reporting.”
Hull said the district needs to reexamine the policy because it does not allow students to capture evidence of any wrongdoing, including possible crimes or misconduct. She also said it was unreasonable to expect young students to know the “proper channels” for reporting such events.
“Frankly, many of them don’t know if they’ll be believed,” Hull said. “It makes sense that they would feel the need to capture hard evidence and indisputable evidence.”
Wellborn said she understands that the district does not want students taking “vigilante” recordings of any slight infraction by teachers but she said this teacher’s actions needed to be brought to light.
“What you are tacitly doing is discouraging students from reporting whenever a teacher does something outrageous,” she said.
— with files from The Associated Press
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