South L.A. Teacher Caught On Audio Telling Students Their Parents Would Be Deported
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The fear is real for many young people who believe a Donald Trump presidency means their parents will be deported. Now, a teacher was caught on audio fueling that anxiety.
A substitute physical education teacher at Bret Harte Preparatory Middle School at 9301 S. Hoover Street in South Los Angeles was recorded telling students that their parents would be deported - one day after Trump was elected.
"If you were born here, then your parents gotta go and they gonna leave you behind. You'll be in foster care," according to the recording made by one of the 6th-grade students.
They said he was a long-term substitute teacher at Bret Harte.
At one point on the recording, a child asked the teacher a question.
Student: "How are they going to find me?"
Teacher: "I got your phone numbers, your address, your mama's address, your daddy's address. It's all in the system, sweetie. And when they come and there's an illegal, they gotta go!"
"I don't know how a teacher could say that to a kid?" one student's father asked.
"I was scared because how can a teacher tell us that. He's just rubbing it in that Trump won. We already know that," said one student, whose father was undocumented. "I worry about my dad because I had a nightmare that he wasn't with me any more."
She said the teacher made the threats after the students were not listening in class.
Luis Raynaga said his daughter and a handful of other students filed complaints with the Los Angeles Unified School District.
He said the principal told him that the teacher has been fired.
The school district did not respond to CBS2's Kristine Lazar's email for comment.
