A South Florida high school teacher is being suspended without pay for a week for calling a Muslim student a "raghead Taliban."
The Broward School Board approved the suspension Tuesday against Cypress Bay High School teacher Maria Valdes. She must also attend diversity training.
The 14-year-old boy's father, Youssef Wardani, wanted Valdes fired or suspended for a year. He said his son was bullied by the 64-year-old French teacher's comments and accused school officials of not acting quickly enough.
A Facebook page was set up to call attention to the case and pressure school officials to act.
Superintendent Robert Runcie said he filed the administrative complaint against Valdes immediately after hearing about the incident.
According to the complaint, Valdes made several Taliban references toward the boy, who is of Lebanese and Moroccan decent. The comments started after he came to class wearing a hoodie during the first week of February.
A message left by The Associated Press at a telephone listing for Valdes wasn't immediately returned.
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