California school investigating substitute teacher seen on video using the N-word

Temecula Valley schools are investigating after a substitute teacher was captured on video using the N-word in a middle school classroom.

The video shows him sitting at a desk and in a conversation with students at Bella Vista Middle School near Murrieta. The substitute discusses use of the word “negroes,” and says that using that word is OK. He says “the word that people don’t like is …” before saying the N-word.

The man then says the slur a few times as students react with laughter and what appears to be shock. The video appears edited, with parts not being continuous. Also, children’s faces are digitally obscured.

James Evans, Temecula Valley Unified School District spokesperson, said in an email Monday, May 22, that the district learned of the video Thursday, May 18, and immediately blocked the substitute from working at any of its schools.

“The District does not tolerate the use of racial slurs … the District will appropriately investigate this matter and take all appropriate measures,” Evans wrote.

Myles Ross, president of the NAACP’s branch covering southwest Riverside County, said Tuesday, May 23, by phone that he believes use of the word “negro” is not OK. The word is derogatory, he said, because it is a name given by one group of people to another as a form of segregation.

“If an academic is teaching race and racism and using the word in context, then that’s a different matter, but if the person is using it to be derogatory or inflammatory, it’s just not appropriate,” Ross said. “I’m inclined to think it’s not being used as a teaching moment to enlighten people or bring a unity of understanding. It’s like gratuitous sex in movies.”

Recently, Ross said, people such as the substitute teacher have felt more emboldened to contribute to bigotry and racism.

In December, the Temecula Valley school board approved a resolution condeming racism that states “racism has no place in American, society, especially not in Temecula Valley Unified.” That same night, the board’s new conservative Christian majority voted to ban critical race theory in the district.

Of the approximately 300 comments about the video on TikTok, most viewers criticized use of the racial slur, but a few defended the teacher and pointed out that the students were heard laughing.

The video comes a week after a drama teacher at Temecula Valley High School was accused at a school board meeting of having students read a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Angels in America,” that one parent and a pastor, Tim Thompson, called sexually explicit and inappropriate.

In October 2021, a teacher at North High School in Riverside was caught on video doing a mock Native American chant, which led to her being placed on administrative leave and ultimately fired by the school board in February 2022.