High school teacher recorded using racial slur in class
A local high school math teacher allegedly used a racial slur while teaching a classroom full of students and the audio is caught on tape.
This just a few days after that Yucca Valley High School was put in the spotlight with controversial yearbook photos showing students holding a prop gun, prop knife and prop bomb.
“We were going to call one the cr***er and the n****r,” said Kimberly Siddall in a recording of a math class she was allegedly teaching on May 18th at YVHS.
Students are then heard laughing then Siddall is heard saying, “But that’s only in our house. So keep from saying that out loud in public. It’s because one’s dark and one’s white.”
Alizdrian Roberts, a sophomore at the school, was recording the class for her mother. The family wanted to hear if Siddall was staying on subject teaching math while class was in session. Within just a few minutes of the recording the biracial student caught Siddall using the slur as an example for a math problem.
“It’s indescribable at the moment, and who was I supposed to go tell?” Asked Roberts. “I felt ashamed that I was a minority in a class of different races and it’s still something that I can’t get over,” said Roberts.
That wasn’t the only crass thing recorded during the class. Here’s Siddall allegedly using a math problem to describe her nickname for her motorcycle group.
“This is the same thing as saying F of G and G of F which is this right here. Say that fast to yourself right here,” said Siddall in the recording. A student is heard responding saying “F*** off.”
Roberts’ mother, Theresa Miller, was furious when she heard the recording.
“It’s is beyond me. It really, really, really, upsets me to the point that I’m trying to stick up for my daughter, I’m trying to stick up for the school, but this is inappropriate, it’s not a funny matter,” said Miller.
The school sent an apology letter to the family, but Miller says it wasn’t good enough.
“That was a smack in the face and this is not OK. It’s doesn’t even have my daughter’s first name, it’s not on the school letterhead, there is none of that. It’s not even professionally reviewed. It was quickly written poorly,” said Miller.
KESQ & CBS Local 2 reached out to the principal of the school, Carl Phillips, but he never got back to us. According to the family, they did have a meeting with Phillips on Tuesday afternoon and he told the family the teacher would be disciplined but he didn’t go into any detail.
“He agreed that everything is going on, and he doesn’t condone it, but it is a work in progress. I have faith in that and I hope to see some changes going on,” said Miller.
We also tried to get an update on the current yearbook scandal but no one at the school got back to us.
