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La Cañada Teacher Accused of Calling Student 'Jew Boy' Keeps Her Job
Photo by doviende via Flickr
The La Cañada High teacher who was accused of calling a student "Jew boy," making fun of a student with a stutter and giving female students in her math class a hard time will be keeping her job.
A district investigation found that math teacher Gabrielle Leko had "made inappropriate comments containing gender and ethnic bias during exchanges of banter with students in an attempt to develop a rapport with students during class time," according to La Cañada Flintridge Patch.
For that, Leko will go to sensitivity training but she will keep her job. Some parents say that sentence is too light. Parent Amy Bernhard told Patch:
Since when is it 'banter' when a teacher makes fun of a student’s stutter, tells an Armenian student to 'get in your black BMW and go back to Glendale,' and to call a student 'Jew boy'? It sounds to me like a bully on the schoolyard, making fun of an individual while everyone gathers around to laugh and make the target feel marginalized. However, in this instance, it was the adult, the person of authority in the room, the person who has control over the students’ grades.
Outgoing LCUSD board member Cindy Wilcox filed the complaint against Leko, because she said parents were afraid of complaining against the school's calculus teacher. (Presumably, the parents all feared this woman who held the key to their children's happiness: acing the Calculus AP.)
"It became clear to me that parents were not going to file, and this appalling situation needs to be addressed," Wilcox told Patch.
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