A White Texas teacher, who placed her foot on a 10-year-old Black student’s neck before taking a photo of it and sending it to the student’s mother, has been placed on suspension while the school district looks into the incident.
Speaking to Fox 4, the 10-year-old boy’s aunt, Lakadren Moore, said Tuesday’s incident happened after the teacher said she would put her foot on her nephew’s neck if he did not stop misbehaving and concentrate on his work. When the boy and other students called her bluff, his family said she went ahead to place her foot on his neck after the boy lied on the ground.
She then took a photo of it and sent it to the boy’s mother. The mother told CBS DFW the White teacher is a family friend. Despite the familiarity, however, the photo did not go down well with the minor’s family.
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“This stuff right here is unacceptable. Under no circumstances should this have happened. This is my nephew and his teacher and she thought it would be funny to do some sh*t like this,” Moore posted on Facebook. She also said the photo was sent moments after former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, Fox 4 reported.
“You don’t do that to a 10-year-old. You don’t do that to a child. Period,” Moore said.
Despite the anger, the boy, identified as Zaelyn Jackson, told CBS DFW he felt the teacher was just joking and they were even laughing when the photo was taken. “People think she was trying to copy George Floyd’s death,” Zaelyn said. “I feel like she was just playing, it didn’t mean any harm.”
And though Zaelyn doesn’t want the incident to cost the teacher her job, his family as well as other Greenville residents want her terminated. Greenville Independent School District Superintendent Demetrus Liggins also condemned the incident and said it was a bad joke.
“Whether the student was a willing participant or not, whether it was a staged picture or not, it was still extremely, highly inappropriate and should not have taken place and definitely should not have been photographed,” Liggins said.
