Teacher Allegedly Fired For Using The Word 'Negro' In Her Spanish Class, Sues [View all]

[The Straight Story]

A New York City teacher was allegedly fired for using the word "negro" to describe a student in her Spanish class, which she claims was part of a lesson in translation. Now she is suing because she hasn't been able to find another job since she was sacked.

Petrona Smith, 65, non-tenured, junior high school teacher, was let go from P.S. 211 in the Bronx in March 2012, according to the New York Post. She was allegedly fired after a pupil reported her for calling a student "negro" during a Spanish class.

However, the Post reported that Smith, a black woman from the West Indies, said she only used the word in reference to the color black. She then reportedly explained to her students that it is not a derogatory term and that the Spanish word for a black person is “moreno.”

“They haven’t even accounted for how absurd it is for someone who’s black to be using a racial slur to a student,” Shaun Reid, Smith’s attorney, told the Post. “Talk about context! There’s a lot of things wrong here.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/fired-for-word-negro-spanish_n_3332861.html