Thursday, March 28, 2024

Cher Offers to Pay Legal Fees for School Guard Fired Over Telling Student: ‘I’m Not Your N*gga’ [VIDEO]

*Singer, actress and producer Cher took to her Twitter account Friday to tweet in support of Marlon Anderson, the Wisconsin school security guard who was fired for repeating a racial slur after an altercation with a student.

According to reports, the student became verbally abusive as Anderson was escorting him out of the school, repeatedly using the N-word. Anderson repeated the word in his request that the student stop hurling such foul language.

“Don’t call me that, don’t call me the n-word, and don’t call me [n-word],” Anderson told the student. He was fired shortly after the incident, MSN.com reports. The firing spurred student protests and demands for reinstatement.

“Short story….I get called a bit@# @ss Ni€€A by a student, I responded do ‘not call me ni€€a !’ And I got fired,” Marlon Anderson wrote in a Facebook post on 16 October. He also criticized the Madison Metropolitan School District, writing “MMSD I unfortunately expected better.”

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The district said Anderson was fired due to its “zero-tolerance” policy against the use of racial slurs, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The local teacher’s union said it would file a grievance on behalf of Anderson, NBC 15 reported. Anderson intends to sue if MMSD does not give him his job back.

On Friday, hundreds of students left school to protest, walking two miles to the MMSD offices.

Arne Duncan, Barack Obama’s education secretary, also came to Anderson’s defense, tweeting Friday: “The Madison, WI school district needs to grow a brain, and a heart, really quickly! I’ve seen some crazy things over the years, but this is one of the worst. Just more evidence our country still can’t handle issues of race, and racism.”

Cher also offered to help, telling Anderson “if you want to sue … I will incur your expenses”.

The school district superintendent said on Friday it will review its strict policy against racial slurs.

“All of us here know that education is a dynamic social process,” the Journal Sentinel reported the statement as saying. “Sometimes it gets messy when we have to grapple together around deeply held values like what it means to be anti-racist.

“…There is no doubt that language matters and racial slurs are harmful. However, at this point, we have an opportunity to look more deeply into the response to the use of racial slurs in our schools.”

The school board president also said it would review district rules on disciplining staff for using offensive language.

In the meantime, the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County said on Friday that it hired Anderson while district officials weigh his appeal.

On Facebook, Anderson wrote: “This is a great help to be able to earn wages while we go through this appeals process. The reality is I did not just lose wages but also benefits. Most importantly we will soon be without health insurance … which makes the loss that much more impactful to myself and my family.

“This among other reasons is why I am still fighting for my position @ West with fervor.”

He added that he was “amazed at the dynamic support from my Madison Community your love is recognized and so appreciated. I am still fighting for my position @ West and for justice to be applied to my situation. I am also still fighting to challenge the ‘no tolerance’ policy that made me a casualty to its flawed planning and implementation. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.”

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