A teacher from the Shawano Sacred Heart Middle School in Wisconsin is facing criticism after benching student/basketball player Miranda Washinawatok for saying “I love you” in her native language, Menominee.
“She sort of threw her hands down on her desk and said don’t be talking like that,” Washinawatok told NBC 26 of her teacher’s reaction. “‘How would you like it if I started talking Polish?'”
Washinawatok was merely teaching a few of her friends how to speak those three little words in her native language when teacher Julie Gurta decided to bench Washinawatok from the middle school basketball team’s upcoming game.
Needless to say, the Washinawatok family and others are lobbying against this punishment and calling for the teacher’s firing.
The school indicated that Washinawatok was suspended not for speaking a different language, but instead for being disrespectful towards her teacher. However, the archdiocese that runs the school has apologized to the family and the entire Menominee nation.
