OPRF teacher ‘reassigned’ after using racial slur in classroom, documents show

OPRF teacher ‘reassigned’ after using racial slur in classroom, documents show

A visual arts teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School has been “reassigned” by administrators after she admitted that she had used a racial slur during a class in October, according to school district documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

According to the documents, teacher Michelle Carrow acknowledged using the word in front of students during her second-period class on Oct. 23. School officials confirmed Carrow was placed on administrative leave the next day, and then briefly returned to her classroom Nov. 5.

Officials said she has since been “reassigned.”

Messages left with Carrow seeking comment on the matter were not returned. When asked to comment, OPRF administrators said: “Due to privacy laws, the district cannot comment on personnel issues.”

According to a letter of reprimand sent by human resources director Roxana Sanders, Carrow attended an investigatory meeting Oct. 25, in which Carrow said one of her students was playing music that included racial slurs during class. Carrow then asked the student to change the song, and the student complied, the letter says.

Another student then asked if that was better, and Carrow replied “that it was and that [she] didn’t like music with ‘N-Words’ in it,” the letter says. According to the letter, Carrow admitted that she used the actual word in the classroom on Oct. 23, and that she repeated it “two or three” times.

Following the Oct. 25 meeting, Carrow was given a written reprimand and directed to work with a racial equity coach and undergo racial sensitivity training by Jan. 7, 2019, according to the letter.

According to a separate letter from Sanders, Carrow was placed on paid administrative leave effective Oct. 24, due to a complaint of “inappropriate, racially charged language” the teacher allegedly used in class in front of students. Carrow was to remain on paid leave for the duration of a district investigation into the allegations, the letter says.

A subsequent letter sent from Superintendent Joylyn Pruitt-Adams to parents of students in Carrow’s classes confirmed Carrow’s absence, adding the district had taken “appropriate measures, which included a thorough investigation and supports for our students.”

In that letter, Pruitt-Adams said Carrow would return to her classroom on Nov. 5, and that she would be in class with a racial equity coach to help support students as part of Carrow’s “re-entry process.”

Tara Stamps, who said her son was in the classroom during the incident, attended the OPRF school board meeting the night of Nov. 5 to speak publicly about the issue and Carrow’s return to class.

“There’s no allegedly here,” Stamps said. “What is indisputable by all is that she said it. Never was there any compunction, never was there any judgment that said, ‘Probably, I shouldn’t be using that word.’ ”

Stamps criticized the school for its handling of the incident, and said she and others wanted to meet with Carrow face-to-face.

“Nothing that looks like justice has been done,” Stamps said. “As a veteran educator, whenever there was a problem with me and another child, and a parent requested a parent conference, immediately I was called to the office to engage that parent. The thing that makes a difference for children is their teacher. When that trust is broken, so are the spirits of those children.”

In a follow-up interview Nov. 14, Stamps said she had still yet to hear from Carrow, but said she had met with administrators, including Pruitt-Adams, “three or four” times.

“I just wanted to convey what it means to be an educator and the responsibilities that come with that and the relationship [Carrow] had created with those children, and really the heartbreak that comes when people believe they have a close relationship with a teacher and when that’s taken away,” Stamps said. “My two sons, she taught both of them in two different classes. They liked and respected her and were very disappointed when this happened. I don’t think the school handled it well. I’m disappointed parents were not given the decency of a parent conference.”

OPRF also has dealt with several other racially charged incidents in the past few weeks. On Nov. 2, racist and anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered on a shed near the campus tennis courts, and additional “hate-speech graffiti” was discovered Nov. 7 inside a campus bathroom. During a Nov. 9 assembly, a 14-year-old student is alleged to have electronically sent an image of a swastika to several student cellphones.

“It’s one emotional event built up on another emotional event without, really, an opportunity for the kids to take a step back and everybody take a step back to reset themselves,” Stamps said. “[The school] kept trudging it out like everything was OK. The emotions were way too high. I’m really concerned about the emotional toll and how these last few weeks have been for my son.”