Clueless Middle School Teacher Sends Children Home With ‘Ghetto’ Awards

A middle school in Texas stunned parents and horrified its own district officials this week when it sent some children home with “ghetto classroom” awards, and apparently this had been going on for years.

According to MSN, one student went home last week with a gilt-edged certificate that read: “8th Annual Ghetto Classroom Awards.” The student had received the “Huh? Award,” reportedly for saying, “huh?” too often when he did not understand something.

Shockingly, the award was signed by both the classroom teachers and the school principal. The boy’s family was appalled.

“I had to take a second look. I was like, really? How could a teacher put this on there?” the eighth grader’s grandmother said. “Did she just say ghetto on a certificate that she was giving my grandson?”

These awards were reportedly meant as a joke, but the joke is not funny. Everything about this is a problem, from the very idea of giving a kid a jerky, sarcastic award for saying “Huh?” too much to the idea of the “ghetto classroom award” in particular. And then, of course, there is the fact that it says this is the “8th Annual” incarnation of these awards. Is it at all possible that this has seriously been going on for eight years? It is reportedly not a new thing for 2015. Last year, 60 kids at Sulphur Springs Middle School reportedly took home “Ghetto Classroom” awards of their own.

Superintendent Michael Lamb says he was astounded by the awards and considered them hugely inappropriate.

“The ‘huh?’ award just begs questions. And then the 8th annual brings questions, too,” he said. “It’s my understanding the same award was given last year to up to 60 kids.”

According to Newser, the certificate was given to a student in a class for students with learning disabilities and was created by a special-education teacher named Mrs. Garner who has been at Sulphur Springs for two years. She had reportedly been handing out these awards for six years in another school district before coming to Sulphur Springs, and somehow this went completely unnoticed until now.

The student’s mother said the award hurt her son’s feelings and made him feel inferior,

Photo: Fox4news.com