A Merritt Island seventh-grader taking a test on math terminology learned an entirely different lesson when her teacher left a note on the exam that read, "This would be considered not good for an American."
The note triggered an investigation by the school district.
The student’s mother, Christine Cruz, felt compelled to speak out about the incident in hopes that it won’t happen to another student.
“The test was legible and the teacher wrote down, basically, that my daughter’s handwriting wasn’t legible,” said Cruz. “But the last thing she wrote, which was highly offensive to my daughter and my family, was, ‘This would be considered not good for an American.’”
Cruz’s daughter is of Hispanic-American descent.
After meeting with administrators and the teacher, Cruz doesn’t know exactly what the teacher was trying to say.
The teacher apologized.
“The teacher didn’t give any explanation other than she was trying to make my daughter a better student,” Cruz said.
“I just think the behavior was so inappropriate. It was degrading for my daughter.”
The Cruz family’s concerns were passed on to the district level for an investigation -- which has been completed -- but the district has not yet released its findings.
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