Fort Bend ISD teacher put on leave after video surfaces of him using a racial slur

SUGAR LAND -  A teacher at Dulles High School was not on the job on Friday after a video of him surfaced using a racial slur repeatedly.

The Fort Bend Independent School District would not identify the teacher but did confirm he is on paid leave while this situation is being investigated.

The video appeared on Twitter. The teacher used the n-word at least seven times in a classroom with students.

Students FOX 26 spoke to all agreeing it was inappropriate regardless of the context.

”I knew the coach,” said Dontrell Cotton, a senior. “I took kind of some offense because I hung out with him a lot on the basketball court. But, I’m just shocked that he actually said that.”

“I certainly don’t think it’s right to say that, in general, [but] especially being who he is — being a history teacher,” stared Finnegan Metsa-Dali, a junior.

Superintendent Charles Dupre responding in tweets, saying:

“Racial slurs are unacceptable behavior by any standard and will not be tolerated in @FortBendISD. This is already under investigation. Will be dealt with swiftly and assertively.”

”I think he should get fired. You can’t really say that,” said Marcus Fuller, a sophomore.

”I don’t really think it’s my place to say anything because I don’t know what went down but he shouldn’t have been saying that,” said Bella Campos, a freshman. But she added, removing him from the school, at least temporarily, is appropriate.

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However, Mesta-Dail says he is in the coach’s class and some of his peers want him back.

"The first thing that happened was a kid actually came out with a poster and put it on the floor and people starting signing it. And, on the poster it said, 'bring Coach back,'" he recalled. 

Mesta-Dail and Cotton believe the teacher should apologize.

"He really should. Literally, everyone in school deserves an apology for that," Cotton told FOX 26.

Dulles High School principal, Melissa King-Knowles, sent out a letter to students and parents on Friday afternoon. The letter said in part:

"The behavior of the employee seen in this video is very disappointing, and does not reflect the environment that we strive to cultivate at DHS.”

The district declined an on-camera interview because they say it is a personnel matter.