Another Marianna teacher accused of racial slur
Jimmie Green
An investigation is under way to determine whether a Marianna High School teacher used a racial slur and cursed in the classroom as alleged by a parent in a letter to Jackson County Superintendent of Schools Danny Sims.
The allegation against American history teacher Jimmie Green, who is black, came to light late last week. The alleged incident came just days after a white Marianna Middle School teacher was suspended for writing a racial slur on the chalkboard in discussing a rogue acronym for the word CHANGE.
Greg Howard, a seventh grade social studies teacher at MMS, was initially placed on suspension while the investigation into the allegation was being done, and a few days later was placed on a 10-day unpaid suspension. He was also required to take diversity training, write a letter of apology to the students involved, and was stripped of his football coaching responsibilities.
Green has not been placed on suspension to date, Sims said. He continues to teach one dual-enrollment college course and five classes of high school American history. He has worked for the school system since July 2006.
Sims said that students will be interviewed about the allegation as part of the investigation. He would not disclose further specifics about the allegation, adding that the investigation is just getting started and that he had not yet spoken with Green about the matter. He said the probe “will not leave anything unturned.”
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Reader Reactions
i’m so tired of people talking about mr.howard and mr.green. you people act like you have never made a mistake in life i just want you to now that nobodys perfect and we all make mistake we wish we could take back and everyone is acting like they have never have said the “N"word before or just made aracial comment before .and some people are trying to saythat mr.sims is just letting mr.howard slid because they are related and i bet you that who ever said that has no idea of what their talking about.so to everyone out there that have not got over this yet get over it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jackson County Floridan, what’s with the picture of Mr. Green? Could you not find a decent picture of this gentleman. Must you select the one that depicts him in a demeaning and almost criminal fashion?
Did I miss something or was your organization purchased by Fox News?
Checkmate! This is a small town Superintendent’s baseless chessboard response to the public outcry over the immoral action taken by his friend and fellow educator Greg Howard in front of a group of 13 year old kids.
This gentleman, Mr. Green, is being used in an attempt to call off the dogs. Any investigation into Mr. Green will at most show that he employed language properly in context. Mr. Howard, on the other hand, publicly displayed his immoral position on race in front of a group of young children. Further, Daniel Sims recommended a reprimand for Mr. Howard that amounts to a slap on the wrist. The good folks down in Marianna should all know about this thing called the Internet where news travels fast and that public displays of racism, which is immoral, will not go unpunished.
We all know how this county operates. If this African-American man had done anything remotely close to what Mr. Howard (a white man) did, he would already be unemployed. This story has surfaced to make it seem like Mr. Howard’s treatment is unjust. Well, one thing is for sure, the treatment of Mr. Howard is unjust. However, the injustice is not that Greg Howard was suspended. The injustice is that he is still allowed to teach, influence, digrade, and poison our students. What makes it worse is that this punishment was handed down by Superintendent Danny Sims, a man that is related to Howard’s wife, and attends the same church as Howard. The “Good Ole’ Boy” Network is in full effect.
Residents of Marianna or showing there true southern charm just like the sign says. Meaning we are still racist here. Obviously this parent of the student wanted to try and get a little payback for the Howard incident. I cant believe people are mad because we will not allow a teacher to call us the N-word in the classroom, in front of our kids at that. If Mr.Green said a racist word about another race than he should be fired, just like Howard should have been fired immediately. We don’t even know what was said and y’all say suspend him. I will also add that Howard has a body of work, in case some of you didn’t know! And its not hearsay its fact backed up by some teachers and students. All this proves is that Jackson County wants to go back in time. I can guarantee you that howard wouldn’t have had the nerve to say that back in the 80’s and 90’s when it had was some young men there that would have challenged him right there in the class, when it was said. Well here is a wake up call for some of you its 2008 not the 60’s. And that’s not the only thing we aren’t going to tolerate. We knew all along that Marianna would someday make the national news because of racism. And if it keeps up its going to bring some real people hear one day and there going to shine a bright light on Marianna and expose the whole good Ole boy network. From the court house to law enforcement to sports favoritism and many more. There looking now and all it takes is someone needing to get elected, or trying to make a name for his or herself and their going to make an example out of Marianna. I can’t wait!!!!!!!
yes i think mr.green should not be teaching right now because mr.howard was just taking out and the way they are treating mr.green is unfair to the way they treated mr.howard
I read the article regarding Mr. Green, and I would like to make three observations. First, the article itself is devoid of any substantive information regarding the topic under discussion when the alleged racial slur was made, and there is no mention of the context for the comments. Second, Marianna High School has recently emerged from the cloud of being one of Jackson County’s worse performing schools, despite being located at the seat of county government. Could it be the case that he might have something to do with the school’s current status as a “C” school, because he is more demanding of his students. Lastly, I would think that many parents would appreciate a teacher who is actually committed to the development of the intellect: the ability to reason, discriminate, infer, and express themselves in a clear and concise way. However, the decision of those who chose to vent their splines through the local newspaper clearly suggest that some parents are interested in simply a diploma, even if it is not worth the paper it is printed on.
Often people to make statements they believe to be true later to find that they were misinformed. This appears to be the situation in this case by many of the writers in this case. This case is not even close to Mr. Howard’s situation. Mr. Howard was not suspended until these allegations were founded. By that I mean, each of the numerous allegations were confirmed my various sources and an admission was made. He was then suspended with pay until he could meet with the superintendent. At that time the media was brought into the case. Here NO confirmation of this has been made. Just someone saying something about someone else. What was said? When was it said? Who was it said to? How can it be confirmed that it is true? Many other questions and scenerios have been presented by open-minded readers. This mans ethnicity is not the issue. I’ll say….not to those that have grown up and moved away from the biased mentality of racism and prejudice. If Mr. Green has done the same thing as Mr. Howard, treatment should be the same. If it is confirmed to be true. But it has been confirmed that Howard did and said many things outside of what has been publicized in the media. And this so called apology letter to the students….a joke! Our children need a better understanding of how to properly handle situations that occur in life. By posting this alleged act on the front page of the newspaper is wrong!
I know the person who turned Mr. Green in and I would just like to say that most students don’t like Mr. Green. In fact, you probably wouldn’t like him. Mr. Green makes kids work in his class. I have come to find out in my three years living here that most kids want the easy way out..LAZY!!!! They only like teachers that they can suck up to and won’t make them work. Mr. Green is not like that. He makes his students work, he doesn’t allow sleeping in his class, talking when he’s talking, cheating or sucking up to him. He is a good man and really shouldn’t be teaching ungrateful students that attend MHS. I love his class and do not mind the work. the person who turned him in is just trying to get back at Mr. Green because this student is lazy and won’t work as hard as they are suppose to. This student has a low grade and is mad. What has America come to that children have enough power to see teachers loose their job. Remember this is Jackson County, we are already low on teachers!
First, i would like to say is that i doubt anyone of you were actually in the classroom when Mr. Green said any of this “racial slur”. Second of all, i was there. I am a student that is in the class that started this whole mess. i am being investigated for it as well. I would just like to say, as well as many, many others at the school, that Mr. Green is not a Mr. Howard. Mr. Howard made a racist statement aimed to make dicention. Mr. Green was strictly teaching like he was suppose to. in fact, if i was to tell you exactly what he said….many of you would think that this whole investigation is crap. Mr. Green was the only Afro-American in the class, the rest where white. So this was not targeted at anyone. Students where laughing at this remark…oh yeah…this was at the beginning of school. it was only until Mr. Howard got in trouble, that one student decided to try and get this teacher in trouble. and it worked, nothing was said about this for two months….everyone just forgot.
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