California teacher on leave after openly mocking students of color on biology exam, asking racist questions that mentioned physical and ethnic characteristics

A California highschool biology teacher is facing criticism from his school community after he wrote a series of questionable, racist questions on his students’ final exam.

Teacher Alex Nguyen has been faraway from his classroom at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento and is on administrative leave pending the final result of an investigation into the test, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Nguyen created an exam with many questions full of offensive, racist overtones and administered it to no less than 4 of his classes. He even gave the total names of some students, most of whom were students of color, and made disparaging references to their physical and ethnic characteristics.

In one query, which asked, “There are cross-eyed people in high school, like (name of classmate) and (name of student mentioned earlier), which is a dominant trait. We call these people ‘freaks.’ So if you cross two weirdos (two students mentioned again) who are heterozygous for cross-eyed, what kind of offspring will they have?” in response to the Sacramento Bee.

In one other query, he claimed that black culture was popular amongst students at Luther Burbank and made a crude try and justify his position by referring to the “pimp walk” and characteristics resembling “walking with a limp.”

“For some reason, African-American culture has influenced most of the students. How? African-Americans have a gene for pimp walking that is dominant. What is the result of crossing a homozygous dominant Latina (student’s name) with a homozygous recessive Hmong similar to (student’s name)?”

The next query was addressed to students who fell asleep during classes:

“At this wonderful school LBHS we have students who love to sleep in class. I’ve even seen students fall asleep on exams! Can you believe it?! I don’t like it when students sleep in class…it’s rude! So, WAKE UP #$%K! Well, after a lot of research I’ve concluded that the gene responsible for falling asleep is dominant. Some students not only sleep, but also snore in class. That too is a dominant trait. What are the possible offspring if you cross a homozygous sleepy, heterozygous snoring student (student’s name) with a homozygous, attentive, non-snoring student (student’s name)?”

Ten minutes after the exam began, the principal showed up, spoke privately with Nguyen, and collected the tests. School administrators learned in regards to the exam after Nguyen gave the identical tests to a few other classes. Even after the tests were removed, Nguyen continued to complete the testing period by utilizing a projector to display the identical exam questions, which the students had to reply using their very own sheets of paper.

These exams were also graded.

A district spokesman said the varsity was unaware that Nguyen had continued to permit the test to be administered even after the test papers were pulled. Authorities are investigating the matter, and the exams and final grades of the students involved will even be assessed. Parents of those taking the test have also been called.

Nguyen took his final test on June 12 and was suspended for several days the following day, which coincidentally was the last day of school.

The mixed-race student, whose name was mockingly mentioned within the “freaks” query, said he doesn’t want Nguyen to be fired but believes he owes his students an apology.

“I would like him to apologize to Burbank as a whole because that’s most of our kids,” the scholar said. “So for him to say those things is pretty messed up.”

His parents, Adriana and Shawn Allen, said the incident reflects the strained relationship their son has had with Nguyen because the starting of the varsity yr. The Allens have had trouble reaching Nguyen to debate accommodations for his or her son’s disabilities that would allow him to retake his homework. They also said the teacher hurled sarcastic and resentful insults at their son for missing classes and tests because of his participation in varsity sports.

The Allens’ son said Nguyen targeted one other black student on a test, to whom he spoke down before the exam. In that case, he aggressively told the scholar, “Get back to work, boy,” after noticing the kid was not ending his work.

“I thought, ‘Hey, that sounds racist,’” the scholar said. “It’s like talking to him like he’s a slave or something. … You should know history because you’re an adult and you’ve been through history classes and stuff.”

After news of the exam broke, other teachers at Luther Burbank said the varsity has a history of sweeping racist incidents under the rug. The principal denied any claims that the varsity condones racism and discrimination, stating that “the vast majority of our staff are culturally sensitive, culturally responsive, and committed to providing a safe learning environment for our students.”

The Allens have mixed opinions on how the varsity should handle Nguyen. While they’d a mostly positive experience at Luther Burbank, Adriana Allen doesn’t think Nguyen ought to be allowed back within the classroom. Her husband said he needs anti-discrimination training to learn how one can higher serve his students.

“I don’t want to see anyone get fired these days,” Shawn Allen said. “But if there’s some kind of discipline, some kind of class that you can take to improve yourself, especially working in a school with so much diversity, because you have to know how to deal with different cultures and people. … You have to understand that your words can hurt people and put them in situations that they don’t want to be in.”

According to the California Department of Education dataOf the 1,574 students enrolled at Luther Burbank for the 2023-24 school yr, 46.4 percent were Latino, 23.5 percent Asian, 17.4 percent Black, 3.3 percent Pacific Islander, and 2 percent Filipino. Less than 3 percent of enrolled students were white.