Pennsylvania middle school teacher suspended after racist rant in school parking lot

Dillon Thompson
Updated ·2 min read

A middle school teacher has been placed on administrative leave after calling a black parent the N-word and using other racist insults during an argument in the school's parking lot.

Rasheed Noel posted a video of the rant — which began after he and the teacher were involved in a minor car accident — on Facebook last Thursday.

"She hits my car and acts like this on school property in front of students and staff," Noel said in his post.

The unnamed teacher, who has been confirmed as an employee at Drexel Hill Middle School in Drexel Hill, Penn., can be seen checking the back of a red pickup truck as Noel films from a distance.

"You're probably on welfare," she says near the beginning of the video.

"Not even a little bit. Six figures a year, ma'am," Noel responds. "It's because I'm young and I'm black, and [that's] the reason why you would say that."

"That's right, [it is] because you're black," the teacher says afterward. "Always looking to milk the system. And you see me, a white woman, so you think I got money."

Noel also tells the teacher she's "mad and nervous," countering her remarks by sharing that he has a large home and earns a high salary. The woman then responds by saying, "Oh, you go f*** off"," before calling him the N-word.

After Noel met with administrators, the teacher was placed on leave while the school investigates the incident. Aaronda Beauford, the Darby School District's director of communications, announced the decision in an email to parents last Thursday, calling the behavior in the video "deeply troubling."

We are a community of many cultures and backgrounds, and we value our diversity. It strengthens us," Beauford wrote. "We intend to vigorously address this issue."

"I commend the Upper Darby school district for taking quick action on this teacher at Drexel Hill Middle School," Noel wrote in the Facebook post of the video. "They are doing everything in their power to make sure people like this teacher become nonexistent in any school."