“It was a victory for us, because it does show our voices were heard,” said Dee Dee Manzanares Ybarra, the director of the American Indian Movement‘s Southern California chapter and chair of the Rumšen Am:a Tur:ataj Ohlone tribe, who attended school board meetings with other activists since the video became public.Īny changes to a curriculum should be done with the involvement of tribes who first lived on the land, Valdemar said. North High School was placed on leave while it investigated the incident. The district had previously said the teacher at John W. The teacher has the right to a hearing in front of a state commission and may appeal the decision, which could take up to three years, district spokesperson Diana Meza said. Riverside Unified School District officials would not confirm the identity of the fired teacher. The picture, which shows Reed wearing similar feather headgear, is accompanied with text that reads, "Dancing from one end of the room to the other, math teacher Candice Reed wears an Indian headdress to emphasize geometry basics.A Riverside high school teacher who was recorded mimicking Native Americans by wearing a faux headdress and chanting during a math lesson in October was fired last week after months of protest, Native American advocates said.Ĭommunity members representing local tribes and some from out of state spoke at last week’s Riverside school board meeting and cheered when the board announced that an unnamed employee had been fired after a 4-1 vote in closed session. However, accused the school of being complicit after finding an image of Reed in its 2012 yearbook. We will be working with our students, families, staff and community to regain your trust." We are deeply committed to implementing inclusive practices and policies that honor the rich diversity of our district and the greater region. The Riverside Unified School District values diversity, equity and inclusion, and does not condone behavior against these values. The teacher has been placed on leave while the District conducts an investigation. Her actions do not represent the values of our district. These behaviors are completely unacceptable and an offensive depiction of the vast and expansive Native American cultures and practices. "A recording of one of our teachers has been widely circulated on social media. The Riverside Unified School District Administration released the following statement condemning the teacher's actions, adding that the educator had been placed on leave in the wake of the incident. School District Releases Statement, Teacher Placed on Leave In her caption, Brown also provided the contact details of the school and district authorities, urging her followers to file a complaint against the teacher. "This is incredibly racist, cringeworthy and offensive! Candice Reed needs to be fired first thing tomorrow morning," commented another. "All that to teach a class SohCahToa? SohCahToa is like the only thing I remember from HS, and the teacher didn't disrespect or mock our indigenous ancestors to get me to remember it," wrote one user. The video, which has garnered over 1.3 million views (as of publishing), has sparked outrage on social media with netizens accusing the teacher of racism. Not long after the video went viral, popular TikTok user identified the teacher as Candice Reed from an Apple drawing on the wall behind her. It appears as though the teacher was chanting the words "sohcahtoa," which is a mnemonic used to remember the definitions of the trigonometric sine, cosine, and tangent functions of an angle. The video starts off with the teacher performing the tomahawk chop â a gesture that is considered as an offensive mockery of the nation's first people â as she marches around the classroom, flailing her arms around while chanting what sounds like a native Indian war cry.Īt one point, the teacher is seen climbing on top of a desk as she continues her mockery of the indigenous culture before she hops over to her computer to change the slide to her presentation. Stills from the video that has gone viral on social media.
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