WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WIVB) – The Williamsville Central School District is condemning a homework assignment given out by a Spanish teacher that some parents criticized as racist.
“The assignment created by the teacher and provided to students was unacceptable,” the district said in a statement.
The assignment, shared with News 4 by concerned parents, asked students to translate phrases into Spanish. One item to translate was, “You are Mexican and ugly.” Lower down the worksheet, a phrase to translate was, “You are pretty and American.”
“We are addressing the situation to ensure this does not happen again. The District does not condone any instructional material that denigrates our students, families, culture, or beliefs,” the statement said. “Our goal as a District is to create an intentionally welcoming learning environment, celebrating our community and its diversity. This assignment fails to meet our standard and will be dealt with appropriately.”
Williamsville Superintendent Dr. Darren Brown-Hall read the above statement at Tuesday night’s board meeting. The board did not clarify whether it would take further action.
The words “friendly” and “politely” in parenthesis are asking the students to decipher whether or not the “usted” form of the word should be used, which is more formal.
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Nick Veronica is a Buffalo native who joined the News 4 team as a Digital Executive Producer in 2021. He previously worked at NBC Sports and The Buffalo News. You can follow Nick on Facebook and Twitter and find more of his work here.
