High school teacher is suspended for rescinding her student's college letter after sending it because the teen created a swastika with tape and made offensive comments about Jews

  • Massachusetts teacher suspended after withdrawing college recommendation
  • Stoughton High male student was caught making swastika before Thanksgiving 
  • Teacher disciplined for contacting college to explain incident involving student
  • Two other teachers given disciplinary letters for talking about it with students

By Emily Crane For Dailymail.com

Published: 12:01 EST, 4 February 2017 | Updated: 12:36 EST, 4 February 2017

A Massachusetts high school teacher has been suspended after she rescinded a college recommendation letter for a student caught making a swastika.

The teacher, who is an army veteran, was suspended from Stoughton High School for 20 days after she reached out to the college to explain her decision following the anti-Semitic incident.

The student had fashioned a swastika from tape and displayed it while decorating the halls after school before Thanksgiving.

A female teacher, who is an army veteran, was suspended from Stoughton High School (pictured) in Massachusetts after she contacted a college to withdraw her recommendation

When another student told him to throw it out because it was offensive, the male student made an offensive comment about Adolf Hitler killing Jews during the Holocaust. 

The student, who was studying the Holocaust at the time, was suspended but students continued to talk about the incident, the Enterprise reports.

Several teachers were then disciplined for speaking about the incident among themselves and with students after a parent of the boy filed complaints.

Superintendent of Schools Marguerite Rizzi had sent out a school-wide letter explaining the parent's complaint.

Superintendent of Schools Marguerite Rizzi (left) would not comment on the incident when it was raised by the teacher's union at the school's board meeting last week

'The student believed that he was being targeted, creating a hostile environment for him by members of the faculty because of his actions, despite having already been disciplined by the administration,' Rizzi wrote.

Two teachers were given disciplinary letters for talking about the swastika incident.

The other teacher was suspended by talking about it and contacting the college to say she could no longer support the student's letter of recommendation because of what he did. 

The incident and disciplinary action was made public last week by the Stoughton Teacher's Association during the school's board meeting.

Another student created a GoFundMe page this week in support of the suspended teacher. The Massachusetts Teachers Association also started a petition for the teachers who stood up to 'hate speech in their school'. 

The Massachusetts Teachers Association also started a petition for the teachers who stood up to 'hate speech in their school'

 

Comments (14)

Share what you think

 View all

The comments below have not been moderated.

 View all

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Add your comment

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now