Fourteen Idaho elementary school teachers and staff members have been suspended after pictures of the group dressed up as Mexicans and President Trump’s infamous Mexico-U.S. border wall for Halloween.
According to Yahoo, Saturday, Middleton School District superintendent Dr. Josh Middleton made an announcement during a school board meeting that all the staffers involved in the tasteless photo op would be placed on paid administrative leave.
The picture was originally posted to the School District’s Facebook page Thursday evening. In the snapshot, the border wall reads “Make America Great Again,” with educators dressed up as Mexicans wearing sombreros, ponchos and holding maracas. One woman even wrote “MEXICAN” in big red letters on the top of her sombrero, to make sure the message got across.
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“It was a great day to be a Heights Hawk! We celebrated our RESPECT character winners, single and double marathon runners,” read the caption to the offensive post.
“This type of behavior has no place in education and certainly is not tolerated here at Middleton School District,” read a statement from the school district’s board of trustees.
“This situation is being taken very seriously. We are in full support of our superintendent and administrative staff as a full investigation is being conducted, and are awaiting the results of the investigation,” it continued. “This is an unfortunate incident of very poor judgment. Yet it is not indicative of the Middleton School District or our teachers as a whole.”
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Another day, another racist costume. This is from Middletown School District in Idaho. Please call (208) 585-3027 to say
1) racism is unacceptable
2) they are creating and promoting a hostile learning environment to children
3) what is their plan to make it right? pic.twitter.com/DqUwvP3ROL— heidi heilig (@heidiheilig) November 2, 2018
The district may have pulled the pictures, but by then screenshots had already been taken and started circulating online with parents and students from all over the country expressing their outrage that something so racially biased was conceptualized by the faculty.
In a Facebook Live posted to the school district’s page, Superintendent Middleton offered his “sincerest and deepest apologies.” He also said the elementary school will receive heightened security as well as a crisis team to support those impacted by both the actions of the teachers and the negative national coverage the school has received as a result.
The Middleton Police Department also released a statement stating they’ve been made aware of the incident and they are increasing police presence at the elementary school “to ensure safety, security, and hope for a peaceful resolution.”