A black high school security guard in Wisconsin, who was fired for telling a student not to say the N-word, was rehired by Madison West High School.
“I’m back!!” Marlon Anderson announced Monday on Facebook. “I learned from the Madison Teachers Union President that School Supt. Jane Belmore has rescinded the decision of my termination. I will be placed on paid administrative leave and my transition plan is being negotiated.”
District supervisor Jane Belmore said Monday that the district had “heard from our community” and wanted “to live up to the commitments we’ve made to be allies with our students and be an anti-racist school district.”
Anderson was originally fired after he fell afoul of the school’s zero-tolerance policy for using the N-word. He said he was called a “bit@# @ss N—-” by a student and responded by telling the student to “not call me n—-!”
The school’s principal, Karen Boran, had said that racial slurs were “not acceptable” regardless “of context or circumstances.”
Students at the high school responded by planning a walkout in support of Anderson and the teachers union filed an appeal before Anderson eventually got his job back.
The school had five incidents of racial slurs used by staff and teachers last year.
