A New Mexico high school teacher has been disciplined after a parent says the man told his black son that Santa Claus is white.
Officials at the school in Rio Rancho, about 15 miles north of Albuquerque, said Saturday that the teacher recently was disciplined for his comments to the student, but they declined to say how.
The move came after students at Cleveland High School were told they could come to class dressed as Santa, an elf or a reindeer.
Michael Rougier told KOB-TV his ninth-grade son, Christopher, arrived wearing a Santa hat and beard, and the teacher asked the boy: “Don’t you know Santa Clause is white? Why are you wearing that?”
The teacher’s name was not released.
Michael Rougier said the teacher’s comments enraged him.
“There’s no room for that in the classroom,” he said. “Whether this teacher felt Christopher may have been wearing this out of context, there’s no room for it. There’s just no room for it.”
The incident happened the same week that Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly said on the air that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white. Her comments drew national attention and prompted a slew of heated comments on blogs and social media sites.
A spokeswoman for Rio Rancho Public Schools told The Associated Press that the Cleveland High School teacher knows he made a “stupid mistake” and has since apologized to the Rougier family.
“The remark was inappropriate and should not have been made. The teacher feels very badly about what occurred,” district spokeswoman Kim Vesely told the AP in an email. “He self-reported the incident to the principal and has apologized to the student and to the student’s parent. Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken.”
Michael Rougier said he still has concerns about the teacher. “If he has that attitude, how is it affecting students, studies, grading habits, trending toward Caucasian kids?” Rougier said.
The teacher still works at Cleveland, but Christopher has been removed from his class at his family’s request, Vesely said.
Radio Host Defends Megyn Kelly: ‘Martin Luther King Is Always Portrayed As Black’
During a guest hosting stint on Herman Cain’s radio show on December 16, attorney and author Neal Boortz, joked that if Black people are upset that Santa is always depicted as White, then he should be upset that Civil Rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is always depicted as Black.
“Yeah, I’m sorry, Santa Claus is White!” Boortz said to a caller. “Okay? Deal with it!”
“Everything has got to be Black now, it doesn’t matter what it is,” the caller laments.
“You know, I’m going to scream and complain because Martin Luther King is always portrayed as Black,” Boortz quips. “It just ain’t right.”
As previously reported by NewsOne, Kelly, responding to a tongue-in-cheek article by Slate culture blogger Aisha Harris, who seriously tackled White privilege while simultaneously joking that perhaps Santa should be a penguin, slammed the idea of a Black Santa and a Black Jesus because “historically,” they are White.
“For you kids watching at home,” Kelly said during her show on Wednesday, “Santa just is White. But this person is arguing that maybe we should also have a Black Santa.”
Jesus was a white man, too. It’s like we have, he’s a historical figure that’s a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know that. How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?”
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