Riverside teacher on leave after mimicking Native Americans

A high school math teach teacher in Riverside was placed on leave after a video taken by a student went viral, showing her wearing a fake headdress, stomping around the classroom and making chopping motions, while chanting “Soh-Cah-Toa,” which is often used in math courses to remember how to solve for missing sides and angles in a right triangle.

Riverside Union School District released a statement Thursday, saying, “These behaviors are completely unacceptable and an offensive depiction of the vast and expansive Native American cultures and practices. Her actions do not represent the values of our district.” The district said the teacher has been placed on leave while the district conducts an investigation.

Community members organized a protest Thursday in response to the video.

Dee Dee Manzanares Ybarra, the director of the American Indian Movement‘s Southern California chapter and tribal chair of the Dee Dee Manzanares Ybarra, said: “People are upset, people are a little angry with what happened because it’s just so disrespectful to our youth,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

“It’s essentially mockery is what it is — racial mockery,” said James Fenelon, director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples Studies at Cal State San Bernardino, according to the Riverside paper The Press-Enterprise.

The Press-Enterprise also reports that a 2012 alumni found an old yearbook with a picture of the same teacher using the same tactic. The district says it is offering to counsel students at the high school.