San Antonio school teacher under investigation for allegedly telling students to 'go back to Africa'

Northside Independent School District is looking into allegations that a teacher at one of its schools told a pair of students to "go back to Africa" after they declined to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

A teacher at NISD's Hobby Middle School is on administrative leave pending an investigation prompted by a student complaint, district spokesman Barry Perez told the Current. He declined to reveal more about the incident, including the identity of the teacher and a timetable for the probe. 

KENS5 first reported on alleged exchange, which it said happened last Tuesday. 

After the purported interaction with a Hobby math teacher, one of the two students notified her father, and the family took up the matter with school officials, according to KENS.

Speaking during an anonymous interview, the father told KENS that students shouldn't be punished for refusing to stand for the pledge since they're exercising their free-speech rights. He said the teacher called to apologize — something he dismissed as insincere. 

"Only a racist mind would go to tell a Black person to 'go back to Africa,'" the man told KENS.

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