A Texas teacher is in trouble after presenting a student with a “most likely to become a terrorist” award Tuesday, one day after a deadly terrorist attack killed 22 in Manchester, England.
“I received a fake award that is supposed to be a joke that says ‘most likely to become a terrorist’,” Lizeth Villanueva, 13, told Fox 26 Houston.
According to Villanueva, an honors student, a group of teachers gave out the certificates as a joke during a mock awards ceremony just prior to the students be released for summer vacation. Other students received awards for “most likely to cry for every little thing” and “most likely to become homeless.”
“When she said my name I turned around like what, what did she just say? I was very upset. I was mad but didn’t show it,” Villanueva said.
The school has apologized for the incident.
“The Channelview ISD Administration would like to apologize for the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom. Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district’s vision, mission and educational goals for our students,” the Channelview Independent School District said in a statement.
While the school has suspended the teacher, Villanueva’s mother says that is not enough and is calling for her firing.
“It is kind of hard to believe somebody would do that,” Ena Hernandez, Villanueva’s mother said. “So far I also know, the principal also mentioned to us that there were other parents complaining about a similar situation, the same thing.”
