Say What Now? Teacher Tells Black Student His Friends Would ‘Lynch’ Him If He Didn’t Focus in Class

Tanish Agee-Bell, of Ohio, is upset after finding out her son’s teacher made a racist comment towards him in class.

According to Fox 19, Tanish initially brushed off her eighth-grade son’s claims that his social studies teacher said something about “lynching” to him during school hours — but then the teacher admitted it.

via NYDN:

She believed the 13-year-old had perhaps taken a comment out of context and contacted the teacher, Renee Thole, whom Agee-Bell says owned up to what she’d done.

The teacher reportedly told the boy, “If you don’t get back on task, your friends are going to form an angry mob and lynch you.”

Agee-Bell told Fox 19 she was shocked.

“I was just taken aback because I said, ‘what you said is actually worse than what he said you said,'” she told the outlet. 

The incident occurred in early December, though her son kept it from her until a week after the fact because he was fearful of the consequences. The boy reportedly told the teacher at the time that she was racist. 

Upon learning about the incident, Agee-Bell went straight to the Mason Middle School superintendent’s office.

“For me, that’s enough for her, as a social studies teacher especially, to be removed from the classroom,” Agee-Bell told Fox 19.

“I don’t know if she’s racist, but I know that what she said is racist.”

The district did not remove the teacher from the classroom.

“Growing Greatness together is our district’s vision. But, we have not arrived. We have work to do,” the school said in a statement to Fox 19.

“Sometimes we mess up. Clearly, that was the case here. And, even though this teacher did not set out to hurt a child – clearly that happened too. It was amazing that this young black man was brave enough to confront his teacher when the incident happened.”

The school went on to say that they “will continue to invest in training and resources on culturally proficient practices.”