History:

Apparently, this wasn’t the first occurrence and numerous alumni confirmed that she has been doing this for numerous years in the past. She has been utilizing the exact teaching tactic for numerous years while teaching trigonometry. 

Teacher Dancing In Native American Headdress

In October of 2021, A Native American student had recorded their math teacher in Riverside County for wearing a fake feather headdress during a lesson and dancing during class while chanting “SOH CAH TOA”. She then jumped on a desk still chanting, “SOH CAH TOA” which was a mnemonic device for students to remember the three basic trigonometry ratios. Although this was months ago, the teacher just got fired days ago. The teacher was fired from John W. North High School in Riverside, CA. The video clip of her dancing got a lot of press and none of it was particularly good. especially within the community. It even went viral on a major social media platform known as Tiktok. Many newscasts found it strange that the incident happened a few weeks after Governor Newsom signed a bill that requires high school students to complete an ethnic studies course. 

Results:

Numerous Native Americans along with everyone who saw it–Tiktok, newscast, social media– felt disrespected and discriminated against so they held protests outside of the Riverside District office for months. Protestors demanded the math teacher be terminated for her actions and many demanded the implementation of diversity training on Native American history for both staff members as well as students. But most of all, the community wanted an apology which has not been given. On top of this, numerous more people stated they just wanted to hold her accountable for her lack of sensitivity regarding Native American people. The school district then placed a meeting regarding what would further happen to prevent incidents like this from happening again because numerous Native Americans felt not only uncomfortable but as if their culture was getting mocked. Ybarra said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, “We’re tired of being made fun of. We’re not a joke”. While other people – users on Reddit – claim it to be absurd that students called it violent. Reddit user bad_hombre stated, “…the students who recorded this claims it was ‘violence’ directed towards him/her which is just absurd” which is just the tip of the iceberg. More and more Reddit users were defending her.