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Spokane Teacher Fired for Reading Slur in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
Jun. 20th, 2025 04:02 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
amren_feedA Spanish teacher in Spokane is expected to be terminated after reading a passage from “To Kill A Mockingbird” to his class that included the n-word.
The teacher, Matthew Mastronardi, overheard students in his class at West Valley High School discussing the Harper Lee novel and how another teacher told them to skip over the controversial slur within the text. Mastronardi disagreed with that decision.
“I expressed my disagreement with having to skip over words, especially words that prevent a conversation there,” Mastronardi said on “The John Curley Show.” {snip}
According to Mastronardi, a student asked him, “If you were reading the book, would you read the word?” He responded with, “If I were reading from the book, I would read every single word.” This conversation captured the attention of a few other classmates, including one of my favorite students who whipped out the book, turned to the page, and said, “OK, then do it.”
{snip}
On April 28, Mastronardi was given a verbal warning, claiming the incident violated the district’s Civility and Professional Staff Student Boundaries policy. Approximately a week later, Mastronardi was called for a meeting with Human Resources and Principal Mulvey. During this meeting, he was informed he had two options: to voluntarily resign or to expect his contract not to be renewed once it expires.
{snip}
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