Texas teacher mock awards went beyond ‘most likely to become a terrorist’

The Texas teacher who held a mock awards ceremony at a Channelview school offended more than one student.

Blasting News recently reported the story of Lizeth Villanueva, a student in an advanced academic program at Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Channelview, Texas. Stacey Lockett, a teacher at the school, found it amusing to hold a fake awards ceremony, handing out various certificates to students. In Lizeth’s case, she was named “most likely to become a terrorist.” This was bad enough in itself, but the fact it came a day after the Manchester Arena bombing made it even worse. At that time, no news was available of any other awards handed out at the mock ceremony, but now another story has come out.

Photo screen capture from KHOU video

It turns out Lockett gave Sydney Caesar – another seventh-grader – a similar certificate deeming her “most likely to blend in with white people.” Fox News reported that both Sydney and Lizeth were horrified by the awards they received last week. According to Lizeth, the other teachers were laughing throughout the ceremony.

Her mother commented saying, "everyone doesn't believe that this is real but yes this certificate shows that this is real..." @Fox26Houston pic.twitter.com/6Oruoxek98

— Lindsey Henry (@LindseyFOX26) May 26, 2017

Sydney’s mother, Latonya Robinson told the news station that calling a child a terrorist, or saying she is not black enough has now caused other students to give the girls that same label for the rest of the school year. According to Robinson, Sydney was so upset over the incident that she stayed away from class the next day and didn’t want to talk about the incident.

As reported by Fox News, Robinson said people don’t believe the certificate is real. But she says it is and it definitely happened. She added that there is enough bullying by students these days, but now it is a teacher that is doing the bullying. Lizeth also stayed away from school for a few days.

As noted by the Huffington Post, Lockett was suspended by the Channelview School District over the mock awards ceremony, but there is no news of any further disciplinary action against the teacher. Lockett reportedly teaches a college prep class, the Avid program. Lizeth and her mother believe the teacher should be fired.

Meanwhile the Channelview School District said in a statement that the mock awards ceremony did not reflect the many good things happening in the district. The statement said that officials do not condone the incident and are taking it very seriously.