J.K. Mullen High School President Bob Regan says some students in the teacher's class said they became uncomfortable during a lecture on Aug. 30 where the teacher used racial content from a work of literature that included the N word.
Regan confirms the teacher used the N word in class as part of the context of the story.
"Apparently the teacher, just for discussion purposes, kind of dragged it out too far to the point where it was really insensitive and offensive to the students," Regan said.
Regan says as soon as he heard about the comments, he dealt with the issue, placing the teacher on paid administrative leave for two weeks and bringing in a substitute teacher.
"The strongest possible measures short of termination have been taken. His file has been documented and he knows his situation at this point," Regan said.
The teacher also immediately apologized to the students in the class, realizing he had taken things too far.
Mullen High School has made professional counselors available for the students, and the teacher who made the comments is also undergoing counseling as part of his remediation.
9NEWS was contacted by a parent of a student who was in the class at the time. The parent, Cary Reed, said placing the teacher on two weeks paid administrative leave is not enough punishment for the teacher.
"I think this is a school-wide problem. It's not something that's isolated and not something that you can just put a Band-Aid on," Reed said.
Reed's son, Cary Reed, apparently came under criticism from the teacher.
"It got to the point where he told me since I'm black he's going to deduct my grade, winked at me, patted me on the shoulder and laughed," Tylor Brown, the student, said.
Mullen High School held meeting with Reed and the teacher to discuss the incident. Reed says in the meetings, the teacher admitted having racists thoughts and feelings for most of his life.
"He admitted to having racists thoughts racists feeling ...this is something he's been struggling with all his life. He admitted to his uncle being a member of the Ku Klux Klan growing up. He also admitted to the fact that lighter-skinned students may get a better grade in his class that he would judge or teach a black student different than the would teach a white student and this was very disturbing," Reed said.
Regan says he regrets the parent is not happy with the school's response and he would like to work with the parent and student.
"All we wanted Mullen to do was the right thing ... we wanted termination at the very least we didn't thing that he should be with a life time of issues and struggling with racism that he should be in front of this class or any class for that matter," Reed said.
The teacher has been with the school for 10 years. The school is not releasing the teacher's name because it is a personnel issue.
No charges were filed against the teacher.
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