Teenager suspended from school after his vice principal thought he was racist for saying hello

A mum has asked for help after her teenage son was suspended from school because his vice principal thought he was being ‘racist’ after he said ‘hello’ with a slight inflection. 

In a post to parenting Facebook group Mouth of Mums, the woman said her 15-year-old replied ‘hello’ with an elongated ‘o’ to his new vice principal who greeted him at school. 

Parents were baffled as to how the boy’s ‘hello’ could be perceived as racist and encouraged the mum to make a formal complaint. 

The mum said her year 10 son had always got along with the previous vice principal who had left the school.

Not long after starting this new job, the replacement vice greeted the boy and he replied with ‘Helloooooo’.   

‘That’s our family all say it, ‘hellooooo’. Well, this principal rang me and said my son was being racist,’ she wrote in the post. 

‘I said, ‘No he wouldn’t be, that’s the way we all greet everyone in our family’. One week’s suspension for this!!’

The mum said the vice principal, whose race is unknown, ‘held a grudge’ against her son for the rest of the year and suspended him again for refusing to pick up his classmate’s rubbish in the school yard. 

She explained students who have been suspended need to have an interview with the vice principal before returning to school.   

The boy said hello with a drawn out ‘o’ angering the vice principal who them mum said has ‘held a grudge’ against her son ever since

‘So we went to see him after, he greeted my son by his name, asked why we needed to see him. I explained why, (think he may have forgotten about this trivial incident),’ she said. 

‘He said he didn’t have time as he was busy. I’m a working single mum, who took time off work to attend because he told me to make an appointment, I said ‘I work and I’m trying to fit this in around my work’.’ 

She said the teacher ‘snapped back’ at her saying he also has to work then ‘turned his back and walked away’. 

‘I’m blown away and p***ed off that he treated me like this, so I have made an appointment for Wednesday. How do I handle this?’ the mum asked. 

‘This is my youngest, I have managed to put three other awesome kids through school successfully. Have never dealt with this before.’

The story had parents up in arms as they called the vice principal ‘rude and very unprofessional’ while others were perplex at how trivial act could have been racist.

‘I don’t understand, what is racist with helloooo?’ one person asked. 

‘How is dragging out your o in hello racism?’ a second wondered.

‘I’m hearing this in a Mrs Doubtfire voice. If that’s the right way, I can’t see it either,’ replied a third.

One person suggested the man might have mistakenly thought the boy was putting on an offensive accent. 

Many encouraged the mum to make a formal complaint to the Department of Education and others said she should pull her son out of the school. 

‘Change schools and make complaints. You won’t get on the good side of this idiot principal who needs to retire or find a new career,’ one woman said. 

‘This is diabolical of the principal, and yes i would formalise a complaint to the District Education Office,’ agreed another. 

‘Change schools your son or you are not gonna get a fair shake,’ wrote a third.  

However not everyone was convinced of the story’s validity. 

‘I’d rather hear both sides of the story before commenting. I’ve often found in these situations there’s three sides to the story. Yours, his and the truth,’ one man said. 

‘There must, must be more to this…I work in education and have never seen anyone suspended for this. There is a lot of paperwork for suspension and it isn’t handed down lightly,’ a teacher explained. 

‘It probably wasn’t because he said hello, most likely the tone/accent he said it in. We all like to think our kids do no wrong, I reckon there’s more to this,’ a mum said.