Teacher Fired for Defending 9-Year-Old Against Racist Bullies

The right of racism without consequence was successfully passed down a generation last month when an elementary school teacher lost her job of 24 years for defending a nine-year-old boy against a group of schoolyard bullies who called the child the n-word and other racial epithets, The New York Daily News reports.

Pam Aister found herself out of a job after administrators at Four Peaks Elementary School in Fountain Hills, Arizona, said she was too harsh on a group of boys who were ganging up on 9-year-old Malachi Gillis, who is African American.

The incident occurred in May 2013, when Aister found Gillis being picked on by a group of boys.

"He was called the n-word, 'monkey,' and 'coon,' " Aister said to local ABC15.

"If you pick on him, you're picking on me," she said she told the students. "It is not five to one anymore. It is five to two."

The students told their parents that Aister told them to "shut up," and claimed she had "heard about" one of the bully's "ugly face."

According to school administrators, one of the parents filed a complaint with the local school board.

"Mrs. Aister is dismissed, effective now," the board's president, Helen Howard, said before knocking her gavel.

Parents of the bullied boy told local CBS5 that the abuse from this group of boys predated the incident in May and was so bad they decided to move their child to another school.

"'You belong to a zoo,' 'stupid head,' 'monkey,' 'crackhead,'" said Malachi, quoting what he said were daily taunts from a group of five boys.

Supporters of Aister have started a Change.org petition to have the teacher reinstated.