The former International High School teacher who resigned after video surfaced of her threatening a student while repeatedly uttering a racial slur says she lost her temper after a chronically misbehaving boy threatened to use his friends to “take care” of her.
“That’s really when I absolutely lost it,” said Georgiana Jackson, a former special education teacher, in an interview with PIX11 that aired on Tuesday. She is seen pounding on a desk in the viral video and daring the boy to call his friends and she will call hers.
Jackson uses a plural version of the n-word in place of friends. She also uses the f-word in the video that appears to have been captured by one of the students. She said the particular student in the video has been disrespectful the whole school year.
On that Friday morning, the boy refused to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance. He also made a crude sexual comment at her, she said.
Jackson recognized she should have avoided an outburst that ultimately cost her her $58,000 teaching job. She had been working at the school district for almost three years.
“I’m very disappointed in myself. I really shouldn’t have reacted in such a fashion,” she said. “My behavior was very unbecoming. That’s not who I am as a person.”
The school district immediately opened an investigation into the incident. Jackson resigned from her job the same day.
School board member Emanuel Capers called the video disturbing. He said the teacher should have de-escalated the situation rather than verbally attacking the students.
“I’m sorry our students had to see that,” said Capers. He also suggested the district provide training to staff members to better handle similar situations in the future.
Jackson said she attempted to remove the student from the classroom. However, the boy refused to leave. She also appears to have called school security. A security guard appears at the end of the one-minute video to escort the student out of the classroom.
A voice is heard in the video urging the boy to get out. However, he repeatedly refuses to do so.
Jackson is shown in the video verbally attacking the one student in particular. She then issues a broad attack describing her rowdy students as “dumb-ass kids” while returning to her desk following the confrontation.
“I need five minutes to calm down,” Jackson is heard saying in the video. She may need more time to salvage her teaching career.
As she is escorting the student out of the classroom, the security guard is heard saying, “That’s the second class you’ve been troubled with.”
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