A high school teacher was fired after being reprimanded for reading aloud a passage from the classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” that includes the n-word.
Matthew Mastronardi, a former Spanish teacher at West Valley High School in Spokane, Washington, posted documents online showing that his teaching contract was not renewed shortly after he received a “Verbal Warning” about the incident.
In an April 28 warning letter, Principal Ryan Mulvey said the teacher “failed to communicate in a civil manner, failed to maintain an atmosphere conducive to learning by consistently maintaining professional boundaries, and did not maintain the highest professional standards.”
Mr. Mastronardi disagreed, calling the school district’s actions “wholly unjustified.”
“It is not uncivil, nor unprofessional to read a passage from a school approved novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, to students that are currently assigned to read it,” said Mr. Mastronardi in his May 6 rebuttal letter posted on X.
Mr. Mastronardi said Thursday that the incident stemmed from an impromptu discussion with students about whether readers should skip over offensive words in literary works. He said they shouldn’t.
“I expressed my disagreement with having to skip over words,” he told host John Curley on KIRO-FM NewsRadio. “There’s a conversation there. We need to confront history, even if it’s difficult. We’re supposed to be helping kids think about the world and how to think critically, and we do them a disservice when we just tell them to skip over a word.”
A girl asked him if he would say the racial slur aloud if he were reading from the book, and he said he would read every single word. At that point, a boy handed him the book opened to the relevant page and said, “Okay, then do it.”
“He put the book right in my hands, and I was in a ’do or die’ sort of situation. I felt like I was at the point of no return,” Mr. Mastronardi said. “Students will not learn from somebody they believe is a coward or a hypocrite, and that was the last thing I wanted to display for them was hypocrisy or cowardice.”
He said he prefaced the reading by asking the students if they had ever heard him use profanity – they hadn’t – then told them that “for the same reason, you’re never going to hear me say this word, but in the context of the book, we cannot censor it.”
“So I read the passage, and I tried to make it a teaching moment about context, about history, about how intent matters, and it undermines the author’s intent when we don’t use historically accurate language,” Mr. Mastronardi said.
Unknown to Mr. Mastronardi, another student recorded him reading the passage. The video made its way to school officials.
His contract was terminated May 29 by West Valley School District Superintendent Kyle Rydell, who cited “Concerns about your ability to serve as a role model for students” and “poor judgment with students.”
Mr. Mastronardi said he had been teaching on a provisional contract, meaning that he had fewer than three years on the job and therefore could be terminated without cause.
During a May 5 meeting with school officials, he said he was told he could resign voluntarily or risk the nonrenewal of his contract.
He refused to resign and submitted a rebuttal, but was released anyway.
“They might look at me like, hey, this guy’s going to be a loose cannon, especially if we let him get tenure next year,” he said. “The thing is, it’s not really about me. It’s really about the public school system as an institution. It punishes truth telling. It punishes teachers who actually tell the truth to the kids, because that truth is inconvenient to a lot of these progressive ideologies.”
For example, he said, “if I told the kids, hey, there’s only two genders, that could get you fired.”
Students have launched a petition on Change.org calling for the district to reinstate Mr. Mastronardi, describing him as a “beloved educator” who was fired over a “misunderstanding.”
“This decision strikes at the heart of educational integrity and the role educators play in exposing students to important historical contexts that foster critical thinking,” said the petition, which had garnered nearly 1,500 signatures as of late Thursday.
“Mr. Mastronardi is not alone; countless students and parents stand by him, recognizing his commitment to education and the constructive discussions he facilitates,” it states.
Mr. Mastronardi said he plans to appeal the non-renewal decision at the June 25 school board meeting.
The Washington Times reached out to the district for comment.
Published in 1960, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is set in 1930s Alabama and centers on, among other things, a rape trial against a Black man. It is one of the most popular novels in school classrooms and yet also among the most censored, thanks largely to its use of the racial slurs of the period and its themes of racism and sexual assault.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.