White Teacher Tells Black Student To Respond ‘Yes, Sir, Master’
A white teacher in Iowa is in hot water after reportedly telling a black student to respond to him with the phrase “Yes, Sir, Master.”
MailOnline reports that the incident happened while teacher Shawn McCurtain was instructing students to go downstairs for an economics final. Senior Jabre White contends that he said “Yes sir,” to which McCurtain allegedly retorted “You meant to say ‘Yes, sir, master.'” White, a popular senior at Roosevelt High School, quickly responded to the teacher. “Who the f*** are you talking to?” White said, adding “You’re nobody’s master, and this is not the slave days.”
White’s mother, Nicholle, was stunned and hurt by the comment, according to The Des Moines Register. She says that she reached out to school officials, who investigated the matter and confirmed that the alleged incident did in fact take place. Saying that she had tried to be “humble with school officials,” White added, “But I also feel I need to express as a mother, and as a black woman, how I feel.”
Vice Principal Joseph Blazevich told her that the teacher “was very remorseful.” While state law prohibits public disclosure of disciplinary actions, White reached out to the school board this month because she felt the incident had been handled “too lightly” and that the comment deserved more than a reprimand in the teacher’s file. McCurtain reportedly called White this month to apologize, but White says she doesn’t find him “sincere,” saying she plans to reach out to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and the NAACP.
Jabre White, meanwhile, was singled out for praise at graduation by Principal Kevin Biggs. White received the school’s Wanda Everage Award, for possessing qualities of “respect and responsibility.” White admits that McCurtain was only helping his regular economics teacher on the day the comment was made, but also alleges the teacher “always had something smart to say” in their previous interactions. White also said that he asked his regular economics teacher to talk to him, instead of McCurtain, if any problems with his behavior arose.
McCurtain isn’t the only teacher in the news for racially charged remarks recently. As The Inquisitr previously reported, a Montgomery, Alabama high school student made headlines after recording audio of his teacher making racist comments about him.
Despite the comment, which School district spokesman Phil Roeder admits “was wrong in every way you look at it,” McCurtain is still employed as a teacher by the school, while Jabre White is headed to Iowa State University as a student in the fall.
[Images via Des Moines Register and MailOnline]
