A Wisconsin teacher who allegedly used racist and homophobic language toward a high school student has resigned after a damning independent investigation overturned a previous review that dismissed the instructor’s behavior as harmless.
The communications and marketing coordinator for Wausau District Schools confirmed in a press release to The Daily Beast Tuesday that Wausau East High School Band Director Rob Perkins submitted his resignation, which was accepted by the school board Monday night.
“The search for Mr. Perkins’ replacement will begin right away. No other information will be released at this time,” the statement read.
In April, Perkins, a white man, caused a ruckus in Wausau’s Asian American community after he allegedly used derogatory terminology for one of his students. Witnesses claimed Perkins used a series of anti-Asian slurs, including “chink” and “ching chong.” The parents of the student, who is gay and of Hmong and Lao descent, filed a complaint against the band teacher, claiming their son was so severely intimidated “that it caused him to experience panic attacks and withdraw from school.”
But despite the offensive remarks, an internal district-led investigation concluded it was fine for Perkins to go back to his job after being placed on leave.
“Witnesses indicate that he did use language that could be insensitive to students of different protected classes, including race and sex, but that language does not rise to the level of discrimination or harassment,” District Superintendent Keith Hilts previously wrote in a letter.
The school district claimed that students said the band teacher used humor to increase students’ engagement—much to the disgust of allies and members of the Asian American community.
“This decision [to reinstate Perkins] sends a strong message that using racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs are permissible, so long as they…are in good faith, and that is just unacceptable to us,” Asian American community members wrote in an open letter.
In May, however, the district board hired an outside attorney who conducted an independent probe after other students—current and former—came forward with more complaints about Perkins as well as complaints about the way the initial probe was conducted, according to the Wausau Daily Herald. The state Department of Public Instruction also reportedly stepped in and opened up an “educator misconduct” investigation.
The independent probe found that the district’s initial review failed to follow Title IX rules and should therefore be thrown out.
The family of the student who filed the initial complaint against Perkins called Perkins’ resignation “an important step towards making Wausau East High School a safer place.”
“Since our family first addressed the school board about our child’s experiences, so many others have come forward to share their own stories of harm and trauma that Perkins’ bullying caused. We are relieved that future students will be spared these damaging experiences,” the student’s father, Twan Vongphakdy, said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
He said the initial investigation was “procedurally mishandled.”
“The problems our family’s experiences have exposed are much bigger than one person,” Vongphakdy said. “Multiple administrators…made excuses and tried to brush [Perkins’] bullying under the rug, in a way that caused deep harm to our child. The district must take accountability for these failures and learn from them so that they never happen again to another child. This accountability is necessary before true healing can begin.”
The Wausau School District told The Daily Beast it was not releasing any other information.
