ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Students at an Albuquerque Public Schools high school say they’re upset that a teacher who used a racial slur in class, still has her job. The district says there’s more to the story.

A Freedom High School student says she’s upset that their teacher wasn’t fired after being caught on video saying the n-word. A classmate had encouraged the teacher to say it. “I just don’t find it right. I can see how it can be taken very, very wrong, but I can also see how it can be taken out of context,” the student shared. 

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An APS spokesperson said this situation was reported and dealt with when it happened last March. The school district says the video does not show the full context of the lesson plan being taught on how language can be misused.

But students are angry that she would even say the racial epithet out loud in the first place. “Just the video of her saying it could make a lot of students, especially students of color, feel extremely uncomfortable in their school, especially with a Caucasian woman saying this to them,” said another student. 

The president of Albuquerque’s NAACP branch says this video is shocking and teachers need to act professionally in the classroom. Dr. Harold Bailey explained, “You have to think before you speak, you have to be prepared to handle situations like this and most certainly you have to prepare yourself as far as professional conduct in the classroom at all times.”

The students KRQE News 13 talked to say they want the Freedom High School teacher fired. “I think that it would be a better school if she wasn’t in it.”

It’s unclear whether the teacher was disciplined at all. APS says the school district does not discuss personnel issues. That teacher has twenty years of experience in the classroom.