MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Candice Reed: California teacher blasted over Native American dance in viral video

The educator was identified on social media as Candice Reed who teaches at the John W North High School in Riverside

A math teacher in Riverside, California sparked backlash online after she was caught on camera appearing to mock Native Americans while trying to teach trigonometry to her class.

The educator in question was identified on social media as Candice Reed who teaches at the John W North High School in Riverside, California. A video recorded by a student in her class went viral on social media, showing the teacher doing the Tomahawk Chop and jumping around the classroom while wearing Native American headgear. While the teacher may not have intended to hurt sentiments, she was blasted for appearing to mock indigenous culture while imparting the basic principles of trigonometry to her students.

RELATED ARTICLES

Mom slams teacher who mocked her son, 9, for waving goodbye to her at school gates

Blackpink's Lisa apologizes for cultural appropriation over box braids in 'Money'

The video showed Reed wearing a headgear made of paper with some feathers attacked on it as she demonstrated the dance moves to her students before actually performing them. At some point, she was even seen on top of a bench as her students giggled. The math teacher was allegedly trying to teach them SOH-CAH-TOA (acronyms for defining sine, cos, and tan angles using the hypotenuse, adjacent and opposite sides) by using the Native American dance as a device. However, the dance was deemed as racist and insensitive by some online.

"After several minutes of the teacher war hooping & tomahawk chopping the student began filming because he felt that violence was being committed against him and he had the right to record," Instagram user Shadae Jackson, who originally shared the video, wrote. "This was taken at John W. North high school in Riverside, CA. At first, the student noticed the teacher was pulling out a fake feather headdress and when she put it on he thought, 'what is she going to do?'"

"I am sharing this video because these behaviors can no longer be swept under the rug!" Johnson continued. "As adults, we must stand up for our youth. Please help us in getting the word out and share! This student looks indigenous, has a Native first name, and identifies as Native American. We need to end discrimination and violence against indigenous youth in schools! We’re not in the 1960s anymore, she should know better."

Neither Reed nor anyone from to school district has commented on the video at the time of writing. However, social media was inundated with criticism. "Y'all are gonna have a bad morning. Candice Reed needs to realize this is not how we teach native culture. Ever. The utter lack of respect is stupifying," one tweeted. "Good to know that I wasn’t wrong for how I was feeling. It didn’t sit well with me at all, I just didn’t know if I was overreacting or what. F***ed up," another added. "Why some of these people trying to defend this racist tirade she was also had on some type of feather headdress. She meant to be disrespectful. Stop saying these people don’t mean any harm because they do," a comment read. "It's a good thing we don't teach CRT in school, or else we wouldn't be able to fit in important educational experiences like watching your teacher do the Native American version of blackface," a user quipped. "SO CA TOA is a mnemonic for Trigonometry to remember Sine, Cosine, and Tangent. I’ve never seen this chanted in an American Indian style and is a clear break in diversity standards," another explained