LOS ANGELES—Bernadette Yuson, a Filipina math teacher at Cajon High School in San Bernardino, Calif., has had a difficult month.
In September, Yuson was accused of using a racial slur against a black student, while rearranging the desks in class. Yuson, who has been placed on administrative leave by the school district, claims to be innocent.
According to her side of the story, a disruptive student yelled the “N” word in class from across the room. She then repeated the word, asking if it is a good word to say.
“[The male student of mine] dragged my chair away from my table and sat on it,” Yuson wrote in her statement. “When the bell rang at 1:45pm, I requested him to return my chair, but he argued disrespectfully before finally returning it. When I took attendance of the class, he kept on mumbling in his seat, words I couldn’t hear nor understand from where I was standing. As I was taking roll and explaining their task for the day, the student stood up and shouted to his classmate across the room the ‘N’ word.”
“I was distracted and disturbed, so I questioned him and asked, ‘Wow! N***a? Is that a good word?’ ”Yuson wrote that she wasn’t using it to refer to anyone in her class, but to “let [the student] know indirectly that this was an impolite remark” he had made.
“I said ‘No! I did not refer it to you or anybody else, but I am asking you if the word you shouted to your classmate was a good word,’ ” she stated. “‘I was just repeating the word you said to clarify if it was a good word.’ ”
Local reports have stated that almost all students who were present in her math class that day are sticking to Yuson’s story. She also spoke to school officials and signed a letter admitting that she used the word.
However, the case has not yet been solved. High school senior LaRue Bell, 17, the student identified in the report, and his family have made multiple complaints against Yuson, pushing for her permanent removal from the school. They have already gotten attention from the school board, local news outlets, and big-time community leaders like the NAACP.
“I want her to be fired because she’s just getting away with it. I want something done because I don’t feel this is right,” said Bell’s mother, Vanessa Murray.
“If you can refer to our kids as being n*****s, then you don’t need to teach them,” agreed A. Majadi, vice president of the NAACP’s San Bernardino branch. “The way that matter was handled was reckless. You don’t send the child back to the room and say don’t worry about it.”
With administrators and the press both swirling around her, Yuson has hardly left her home during her leave absence, saying her daughter takes her around if necessary.
“My emotional stress, my pain, the media and threats that I received—that’s why I don’t like to go out anymore,” she said. “Because my picture is all over the newspaper and those parents who did not understand, they might think I’m a racist and the accusation is true. So I just don’t go anywhere.”
“It’s a tough time for me and my family,” she added.
She also wrote in her report that she was rearranging the classroom seats that day to minimize talking between students, not to target any specific ethnic group.
“I have always loved teaching, and have tried to do my job efficiently and effectively,” she said. “I do discipline my students, but I always see to it that it is within the bounds of what should and should not be done inside the classroom and school premises. I don’t tolerate racism or […] anything that will hinder my students from learning.”
Yuson has been gathering local support from groups like the Filipino Migrant Center, which actively supports the Filipino community and “values justice and human dignity,” according to its website.
“This is the issue of the Filipino community, and our members are being accused of racial discrimination and when we found out that’s not true, we felt the obligation,” said Tony Dorono, Executive Director of the Filipino Migrant Center. “We have to fight back and clear Bernadette’s name.”
A month since the incident, Filipinos in the community are upset that Yuson has yet to be vindicated.
Even some of Yuson’s former students have shown their support online.
“I am African American and I had this teacher multiple times in which I NEVER heard her make any racist comments,” Bryce Green tweeted on Sept. 12.
The teacher of 13 years has mostly turned to her faith to keep her going in times of hardship.
“This problem is given to me by God with a purpose, and I also thank God for this problem because I realize without Him I could not do anything,” she said. “With this problem, I can see the power of prayer.”
The school district is expected to announce its final decision regarding the case and Yuson’s teaching status within the next few weeks. They are looking at both sides of the racial slur incident and allegations from Bell’s family and Yuson’s report, as well as investigating how school officials handled the case from both ends.
“We can assure the public that the district took the student’s complaint seriously, and at no time did any district employee minimize the gravity of the impact of the teacher’s words,” the district released earlier in a statement.
Dorono has also met with the African American community, and both sides have agreed that the incident is not an issue between the two ethnic groups. Instead, they are looking at it as a chance to work together to address issues within the school district.
“My feeling this time is ‘Hindi na ako nag iisa’ ,” Yuson said of her community’s support. “I am not alone.”
(With reports from Balitang America, CBS Los Angeles, and the San Bernardino Sun)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(Las Vegas October 9-15, 2014 Sec. A pg.1)
