Southborough teacher on leave after holding mock slave auction, using racial slur, officials say

A teacher at Margaret A. Neary School in Southborough has been placed on administrative leave after officials say the educator held an impromptu mock slave auction during a history lesson and used the N-word while discussing a book in class.

The incidents took place in January and April, respectively, but came to Superintendent Gregory Martineau's attention on April 24, according to an email the administrator sent to families Wednesday evening.

"I apologize for the events that took place in The Public Schools of Southborough," Martineau wrote. "I acknowledge that there are missteps in this process that further complicated the situation."

According to the email, the instructor was teaching a lesson on the "economy of southern colonies" in January that covered slavery.

"During the lesson, the educator held an impromptu mock slave auction. The educator asked two children sitting in front of the room, who were of color, to stand, and the educator and class discussed physical attributes (i.e., teeth and strength)," the email states.

In a separate incident in April, the same educator was reading a book aloud in class that "was not part of the fifth-grade core English language arts curriculum." In the course of discussing that book, the educator used the N-word, according to the email.

"It was later brought to the District's attention that the 'N-word' does not appear in the book," Martineau's email to parents stated. "Dehumanizing words such as slurs should not be spoken by employees or students. Using such words can harm students and negatively impact an open discussion on a particular topic."

Parents of the fifth graders met with the instructor and the Neary school principal to discuss the two incidents, per the email. The following day, the instructor "inappropriately called out the student who had reported the educator's use of the racial slur," triggering a formal investigation by the district, Martineau wrote.

The instructor is still on leave during due process while the principal, Kathleen Valenti, was placed on paid administrative leave for 10 days earlier this month, according to the email.

Valenti did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. The superintendent also did not respond to a request for comment. His email indicates "all personnel matters will remain confidential."

Neary — located about 30 miles west of Boston — serves 250 students in grades 4 and 5, according to the school website. The student body at Northborough-Southborough is 63% white and 3% Black, according to the district profile.

Meghan Cifuentes, parent to a fifth grader in the class, told WBUR that her child came home from school one day and said the teacher had uttered "a bad word" in the classroom.

"Never was I expecting the N-word to come out of his mouth," Cifuentes said Thursday. She said the book the teacher was reading aloud from was "The Parker Inheritance," a 2018 mystery book in which the word does not appear.

"If you're going to use that word with 10 and 11 years olds, there needs to be a heavy discussion of what the word is, why it was used and what it means — just some background information," the parent said.

An early-grade educator by profession, Cifuentes said she is not unhappy that the students were learning historic subject matter, such as the slave trade. "But they're sensitive topics and need to be addressed and taught in the correct way."

"There were children in the classroom that were confused about what an auction was," she said.

The revelations in Southborough come shortly after a separate incident in the Southwick-Tolland-Granville regional school district — about 100 miles west of Boston — in which a group of eighth graders created a Snapchat group in February where they posted racial slurs, racist comments and a mock slave auction directed at two students, according to investigators.

Martineau, the Northborough-Southborough superintendent, said his district is responding to the incident by, among other things, developing a professional development plan that focuses on "culturally competent pedagogy" and strengthening internal reporting and investigatory procedures through formal training.

WBUR's Carrie Jung and Dianna Bell contributed to this report.