SVVSD investigates video of Westview Middle teacher using racist slur

The St. Vrain Valley School District is investigating a video posted anonymously to a social media app that appears to show a teacher at Longmont’s Westview Middle School using a racist slur.

The teacher says the slur several times in the five-minute-and-34-second video, which was posted last week with sound only by a person who appears to be a Westview student to an anonymous TikTok account.

St. Vrain Valley spokeswoman Kerri McDermid said the district is aware of the video and is investigating it. The teacher named in the video didn’t respond to a request for comment. The Times-Call isn’t naming the teacher because the video hasn’t been verified.

The male teacher is talking to a student about her use of another racist slur, this one to describe those of Hispanic heritage, with her Hispanic friends.

“What happens if a white dude calls an African American a (racist slur),” the teacher asks her in the video.

The student says she is upset about how the school handled her using the slur with her friends and argues with the teacher over whether it’s racist since they’re all Hispanic.

“It’s not whether somebody is offended or not, it’s about whether or not one group of people can say things to another group of people based on the color of their skin,” the teacher says in the video. “That’s what it’s about. Because the (racist slur), the (racist slur) — see, I was just racist — because the Black person calling another Black person the N-word, that’s not racism. But as soon as the white person does it, that’s racism. Ok. Because we are treating each other differently based on the color of their skin, that there by definition is racism.”

The teacher also asks the student where her family is from, with the student saying first “here” and then responding with “California” when the teacher continues to push for an answer about her ethnic background.