NEWBURGH – The suspension of Newburgh Free Academy teachers with pay and their reinstatement following their social media comments last year is being condemned by the president of the Newburgh-Highland Falls NAACP.
The three women and one man posted remarks viewed as inappropriate after a teacher took a photo of a braid found on the floor belonging to an African American girl and suggesting it was a snake.
The teachers were suspended with pay by the school board and recently allowed to return to the classroom with only a letter placed in their personnel files.
NAACP President Ray Harvey chastised the school board over their actions.
“When you get a teacher who tears down a child’s self-esteem and the only thing she gets is a suspension with pay, to me you are sending the wrong message to our kids,” he said. “I don’t care whose kid it is or what color the kid is, but this just happened to be an African American young lady.”
Harvey said this was an attack on the way an African American wears her hair. “You shouldn’t be looking at someone’s hair; you should be looking at trying to get them to be the best student that they can be,” he told Mid-Hudson News.
