Teacher is condemned by the courts for a racist message against a school principal
In a text message sent by phone, the school employee called her boss a “stuck up and arrogant nega (black woman)”
RIO – In early January a text message with terms considered prejudiced, was sent to a mobile number, but mistakenly ended up in another. This sparked the war between the director and then assistant of coordination of a state school in the neighborhood of Jardim Catarina, in São Gonçalo (state of Rio de Janeiro). The relationship between the two professionals at the Colégio Trasilbo Filgueiras school, was not good, but had been kept at a friendly level, since the director took office after approval in the selection process, in March of last year. The relationship, however, soured after that, dissatisfied with the changes promoted in the school by the current directors, Andreia decided to vent to another employee, through a text. According to the suit, she had written: “I can’t stand anymore looking at the horns of this arrogant, snobbish nega (negra/black woman)…”. Andreia didn’t count on instead of sending the message to her colleague, she had sent it to the number of the principal.
The fight ended in the police station, where the case was registered as a racial slur. And then in the court, which decided in favor of the director Alba Maria do Nascimento Souza, 46. With this, her former assistant, Andreia Bello Meijinhos, 39, will have to pay her old boss, a black woman, R$5000 (about US$2,500) for damages.
“She even tried to recant, calling me on the same day, but by then the damage was already done,” said the director who, dissatisfied, formalized the complaint with the 74th Precinct Police (Alcântara) and filed a lawsuit for damages in the 1st Vara Cível (Civil Court) of São Gonçalo .
The state Secretary of the Department of Education said it opened an investigation to ascertain the facts, and that, pending the outcome, Andreia will remain a distance from the school unit. Andreia’s defense promised to appeal the suit.
Lawyer will appeal the sentence
The lawyer Tania Maria da Silva Sol, which represents Andreia Meijinhos considered the extent that the case has taken to be exaggerated since, realizing that the text was sent by mistake to the director, her client rushed to contact her, by phone, to apologize. For her, if there was disclosure of the content of the text it was made by the director.
“They’re making a fuss over something that did not deserve this dimension,” Tania defended.
The director argued that she felt humiliated, regardless of the content of whether the text had been disclosed to a third party or not.
The lawyer said Andreia plans to appeal the sentence, with the Panel of Appeals, at the Court of Justice of Rio She said she did not know of her client’s dismissal from the school and will also try to reverse this action. Tania said her client has undergone psychological counseling since August due to work stress. Andreia declined to comment.
Source: O Globo
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