02:00 PM PST on Saturday, March 27, 2004

Associated Press

SEATTLE - A science teacher at Cleveland High School has been placed on paid administrative leave while the local school district investigates allegations that he used racially inappropriate language to address students.

Seattle Public Schools Cleveland High School in south Seattle has a high percentage of minority students.

District officials did not disclose any details about the remarks the teacher is accused of making.

The teacher, placed on leave March 12, is a white man, and the students involved are black, Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Patti Spencer said Saturday.

"Because it's under investigation, and it's only allegations, there's nothing more that I can say," she said, stressing that the district has not suspended or taken any other disciplinary action against the teacher.

A message The Associated Press left at the phone number listed for the teacher was not immediately returned on Saturday.

Wendy Kimball, vice president of the Seattle Education Association - which represents the district's teachers, school office workers and instructional assistants - told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that the union "does not condone in any way racist statements or behavior," but said there is no proof the teacher acted wrongly.

Two other Cleveland teachers have been investigated for using racial terms in the past year.

Last September, teacher Nick Georvasilis received a written reprimand from the district after using a racial term while trying to discipline several students.

"He said something that referred to kids by their race, as in black students, rather than referring to them by their individual names, which is the appropriate way to address them," Spencer said.

Spencer did not specify what racial term Georvasilis used, saying only: "When there's a statement that there's been a racial term, many people's minds go to the 'N' word. That is not the case" with the incident that led to Georvasilis' reprimand, Spencer said.

The letter of reprimand acknowledged that Georvasilis, who still teaches at Cleveland, meant no harm by the statement and later apologized to the students involved.

Last May, in a case that made national headlines, teacher Brian Emanuels was suspended then reprimanded after asking a student who had described an assignment as "gay" how he would like it if someone called him a "nigger."

The Seattle branch of the NAACP demanded that he be fired. The district allowed Emanuels to return to work, saying that while his use of the slur was "inappropriate and unprofessional," it was clear that he was trying to make a point about discriminatory language and "did not intend to harm any person."

Emanuels, a former Microsoft manager, left the school later that year, saying he was not sure if he would return to teaching.

Cleveland is ethnically diverse, with black, Asian and Hispanic students comprising almost 90 percent of enrollment.

"We are struggling and attempting to pay attention to issues related to race to help us be more effective as school leaders," Cleveland Principal Rick Harwood told the P-I, which first reported on the most recent suspension in Saturday's paper. "We've had some concerns recently around school climate and strengthening some of the policies that are already in place around appropriate behavior."

The district's new chief academic officer, Steve Wilson, said he and Ammon McWashington, the newly appointed high schools director, will look into complaints about racial tension at the school.

"We realize there are serious problems and perceptions at Cleveland," Wilson said. "We're putting together an action plan that will include working with the administration, staff, students and community to reach some kind of resolution and harmony."