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Teacher Tells 10-Year-Old Black Student That Cops Will Shoot Him One Day
Malachi Pearson, whose father died of gun violence when he was a baby, was brought to tears.
An elementary school student in Kansas was left in tears last week after a teacher allegedly told him that he’d be a victim of police brutality one day.
Malachi Pearson, a fourth grade student at Rosehill Elementary School in Lenexa, Kansas, told Fox 4 on May 15 that he and his friends were playing in the lunch line the week before when the teacher, who has yet to be identified, made the offensive remark.
“Me and my friend were playing, and then she like, she pushed us away,” he said. They weren’t fighting, he explained. “We were playing and laughing.”
And then, “She said, ‘When you turn 16 and the police shoot you, the only person you can be mad at is yourself.’”
The remark brought Pearson to tears. His father was killed shot and killed in Kansas City when Pearson was only two months old.
“[I’m crying] because it’s sad that my daddy died when I was a baby,” he said.
Pearson’s mother, Mahogany Foster, pulled her son out of school two days after the incident occurred.
That same day, the school district’s assistant superintendent informed her that the teacher who made the comment was placed on leave, Foster said, but Shawna Samuel, the director of communications for Shawnee Mission Schools, would not confirm as much, Fox 4 reports. Samuel told the station on May 15 that “allegations of this nature are taken very seriously.”
“Our investigation is complete. It’s a personnel matter, and by federal law we cannot discuss any disciplinary decisions taken against a teacher or employee,” said Samuel.
Shawnee Mission Schools has not responded to Oxygen.com’s request for comment.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Mahogany Foster. “I never take sides, but I know for a fact that Malachi, he’s a respectful child, so for somebody to say that to a respectful child, I feel that that was a low blow and that was something personal. You shouldn’t say it to any child.”
“The principal doesn’t offer me any type of comfort,” she added. “He doesn’t say I’m gonna get someone here to counsel Malachi to let him know that everything she said is a lie. I think they’re trying to sweep this under the rug.”
Pearson is now at a new school and focused on “trying to move on from what she said.”
His mother is looking into alternative education.
“It’s just made me scared to send him to any school. Now, I’m really focusing on homeschooling,” she said.
[Photo: Getty Images]
