Richmond teacher suspended for forbidding Spanish in class

A Richmond middle school teacher has been suspended after a student recorded her forbidding the use of Spanish in class and telling a student to “go back to wherever that Spanish-speaking country is and speak it.”

The five minutes of audio, published by a local Hispanic radio station last week, has sparked outrage across the school division, with a prominent organization of Latino residents saying the problem is endemic in Richmond Public Schools.

The audio, captured by a student who appears to be uninvolved in the confrontation, includes a conversation between a Boushall Middle School teacher and a student in the class, neither of whom has been identified.

“English is spoken in this class, period,” the teacher says.

“My native language is Spanish, so I can talk in Spanish-” the student replies, before being cut off by the teacher.

“Right, well go back to wherever that Spanish-speaking country is and speak it,” the teacher says. “But when you in America you gonna speak English in the classes that are spoken here.”

https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/go-back-to-wherever-that-spanish-speaking-country-is-and-speak-it-richmond-teacher-suspended-for-forbidding-spanish-in-class/

Sounds just like the Indian boarding schools banning the kids for speaking their tribal languages.