Family demands answers after they say Elizabeth City-Pasquotank teachers used racist terms to refer to their son

A family in Elizabeth City says their son was called the N-word and other racist terms by two teachers during a summer school session.

Now, the family is demanding to know how the school district plans to stop other students from experiencing hate in the classroom.

"These are very challenging times across the country. And it hits different when it hits home," said Shannon Baylor Henderson, the mother of student claiming he was racially abused by his teacher.

On June 22, 16-year-old Jasir Henderson said he was in an Elizabeth City Middle School summer session with five other students when one of this classmates called his attention to a teacher and a substitute at the front of the classroom. They were describing the students with overtly racist language.

"They referred to black people as n--- and used…called us street people," Jasir Henderson said.

He didn't know how to react to the teachers' words.

"Mostly shock," he said. "Not understanding or believing that that just happened in school... School is a controlled environment. And it wasn’t controlled."

He and the other students present made formal complaints to administration about the incident that same day. Jasir Henderson also emailed a detailed description of the language he claims the teachers used to his parents.

"In reading it, both my husband and I were infuriated," Shannon Baylor Henderson said. "Because we also hadn’t been notified that this had happened to our child."

Jasir's mother sent emails the night of the incident, asking Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools for an immediate investigation.

The district's chief of human resources emailed her back saying the district would be investigating and that the two teachers accused of racism had been removed from the summer school program.

WRAL News reached out to the permanent teacher accused in the incident to ask if the allegations were true and if he's still working for the district, but he has yet to respond.

In another email, the district administrator told Shannon Baylor Henderson she would update the family on the conclusion of the investigation as soon as possible.

But that was more than a month ago.

"It just feels like we’re trusting our children, our child and the other children in the school system, but no one feels the need to respond to us and to help us to navigate this very challenging situation," Shannon Baylor Henderson said.

WRAL requested an interview with ECPPS about the investigation, but a district spokesperson declined. The spokesperson said the issue is a personnel matter and thus they can't legally discuss it. They said the district has policies in place that prohibit the kind of conduct WRAL asked about and that there would be no tolerance if the allegations were found to be true.

With the start of the next school year just weeks away, the family feels the district is running out of time to make them feel safe sending Jasir back there this fall.

"I think we want answers," his mother said. "I’m quite sure we’re not the first family to go through this. We’re probably one of the first families to address it in a public way."

WRAL asked ECPPS if the teachers were still working in other summer school positions. The district said its still working on getting WRAL that information but as of today, the permanent teacher is still listed in the Pasquotank High School faculty directory.