Pennsylvania Teacher Placed on Leave After Racist Rant With Parent in School Parking Lot: 'Go Back to Your Welfare'
A minor car crash resulted in a racist rant directed towards the parent of a student at Drexel Hill Middle School in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, local news reports.
Footage of the incident went viral after Rasheed Noel, the target of the abuse, posted a video on Facebook on Thursday. Meanwhile, the teacher who was accused of the racially-motivated attack has been suspended while an investigation takes place, a school spokesperson told reporters at WPVI-TV.
The video starts with the teacher telling Noel he is "probably on welfare." To which he responded: "Not even a little bit. Six figures a year, ma'am," adding that her comment was based on the fact that he is young and black.
"That's right, because you're black," she replied. Later on she can be heard saying, "Always looking to milk the system. And you see me, a white woman, so you think I have money."
"Don't even look like you got it," Noel replied. "Go back to your welfare," she said back.
The back-and-forth continued and approximately one minute into the video, the teacher uses the N-word.
Listen close at 1:17 what she calls me (N****). She hits my car and acts like this on school property in front of students and staff....
"We took this report very seriously," reads a statement from Upper Darby School District posted by WPVI-TV. "We intend to vigorously address this issue. Upper Darby School District does not condone or tolerate inappropriate conduct or speech associated with hate, racism, discrimination or intolerance of any kind. We are a community of many cultures and backgrounds, and we value our diversity. It strengthens us."
On Facebook, Noel commended the district for the speed at which they addressed the issue, saying: "They are doing everything in their power to make sure people like this teacher become non existent in any school. After meeting with the superintendent of Upper Darby school district and his staff, I'm hear to say they absolutely care about their community."
"This is not a regular occurrence in our schools and is not indicative of the hundreds of outstanding teachers working in our schools each and every day," a spokesperson from Upper Darby School District told Newsweek.
From 'Taco Truck Tammy' to 'Jason Mimosa' (not to be confused with Jason Mamoa), it seems the number of racially motivated incidents are on the rise.
According to a report published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in November, hate crime had risen in 2017, making it the third year in a row that the number of reported incidents increased. There were 17 percent more in 2017 than in the previous year—8,437 offenses in comparison to 6,121 offenses in 2016.
That is the largest percentage increase in a decade, Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, told Newsweek at the time. Almost 50 percent of race-based attacks were "motivated by anti-Black or African American bias," the report found.
According to a study published by researchers at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2018, some of the rise can be attributed to what has been dubbed the "Trump Effect," the idea that the President's rhetoric during the campaign and after his election may have emboldened hate crime perpetrators.
Their analysis found "compelling evidence" highlighting a significant surge in reported hate crimes across the country following the 2016 presidential election—even when controlling for other factors.
This article has been updated to include a comment from Upper Darby School District.
