California middle school teacher caught on video repeatedly using racial slur in class

FONTANA, Calif. -- A Sequoia Middle School language arts teacher is being criticized after she was caught on video repeatedly using a racial slur in class.

According to students, the class was reading a Mark Twain novel when someone asked the teacher about the spelling of the N-word.

"The teacher got in front of the class and she was saying that the word is just an English word and everybody can say it if she wants to, it's in the dictionary, and people are oversensitive over the word," said the student who shot the video on her phone. She did not want to be identified.

"She was trying to force him to say the word and she repeatedly kept saying it and she had a smirk on her face," recalled the student, who's African American. "I was just thinking, 'Dang, this teacher is out of her mind.'"

According to the student, the teacher said the word several times.

"Not acceptable," said Caroline Rivera, a mother who has two students enrolled at the school. In her opinion, the teacher needs to be disciplined.

"Pulling the teacher out? Maybe going through training again?" suggested Rivera.

The Fontana Unified School District would not comment on whether the teacher was disciplined or not, but did provide a statement that read in part, "While we acknowledge that this derogatory language comes from a novel first published in the late 1800s, and that historical context is important to consider when discussing literature, the district does not condone the language that was used in the video or using that language outside of the context of discussing the novel."

Eyewitness News contacted the teacher on Wednesday, but she said she did not want to comment on the video.