DAILY DILEMMA: “Innocent fun or racist insult?”
A Polk County elementary teacher is under fire after a video surfaced showing her leading students in a supposedly “funny” birthday ditty that included the lines, “You live in a zoo — you look like a monkey, and you smell like one too,” sung to a 6-year-old Black kindergartner, according to the child’s mother. The clip, which the teacher reportedly sent the boy’s mother, has sparked outrage online and prompted calls for an investigation.
The boy, identified by his mother as Legend Whitaker, told reporters the lyrics hurt his feelings and that he didn’t find the joke funny — a reaction his mother, Desarae Prather, says proves the moment crossed a line from silly to humiliating. Prather told local outlets she wants a formal apology, disciplinary action and counseling for her son, who has since been moved out of the classroom and may be transferred to another school. Polk County Public Schools confirmed it is reviewing the video.
Footage shows classmates and the teacher giggling as the altered verse is sung, a detail that has fueled the mother’s charge that the act wasn’t an innocent childhood joke but played on deeply racist tropes that compare Black people to primates. The teacher — who local union leaders say has worked in the district for years — has not been publicly suspended while the district completes its review.
This isn’t an isolated type of allegation. Schools nationwide have faced similar accusations in recent years — from federal lawsuits alleging teachers compared Black students to animals, to past teacher dismissals in other countries after “monkey”-related comments — underscoring how painfully familiar and combustible such incidents have become. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIdZ9wNDbow
As the investigation continues, the video has already prompted a furious online backlash and death-threats against the teacher — a troubling escalation that parents and officials say distracts from the core issue: whether a trusted adult in a classroom violated a child’s dignity. The school district has said it will review the matter and take appropriate action once the probe is complete.
Check out story below and my poll question results.
