Teachers at a Texas school are facing disciplinary measures after awarding a student a joke certificate declaring her “Most Likely to Become a Terrorist.”
According to KHOU, Lizeth Villanueva, a 7th grader, got the certificate during a “mock awards ceremony” this week at Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Channelview. Villanueva says the teacher, who handed out the mock certificates “just found it as a joke ” while other teachers watched and laughed.
“She said that some people might get offended, but she doesn’t really care about our feelings,” Lizeth said. “She was laughing about it.”
But Villanueva’s mother didn’t find anything funny.
“I read it twice. I’m like, ‘What is this?!'” Ena Hernandez told KHOU.
Student named "most likely to become a terrorist" by teachers. @ChannelviewISD doesn't find it funny. My story: #khou11 at 5:00 & 6:00 pic.twitter.com/ELkS8NAney
— Jason Miles (@JMilesKHOU) May 25, 2017
“It doesn’t look good at all, especially coming from a teacher, a grown-up woman,” Hernandez said, adding that her daughter is in an advanced academic program and doesn’t have any discipline problems. “It doesn’t look good because everything that’s going on right now.”
During a meeting, the principal apologized for the teacher’s actions. In addition, the Channelview School District issued a statement saying the “insensitive and offensive” nature of the joke was unacceptable.
“The Channelview ISD Administration would like to apologize for the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom,” the statement read. “Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district’s vision, mission and educational goals for our students.”
“The teachers involved in this matter have been disciplined according to district policy and the incident is still under investigation.”
Watch KHOU’s report on the story in the video below:
Featured image via KHOU (Twitter)
