- A Virginia teacher said he is suing a 10th grade student after an alleged string of racist abuses.
- The student is accused of mocking teacher Joel Mungo, who is Black, by leaving bananas outside of his classroom.
- The student was ultimately suspended and removed from Mungo's class, according to WAVY.
A high school teacher in Virginia says he is suing a 10th grade student who he says targeted him in a string of racist abuses.
Joel Mungo, a Black teacher at Menchville High School in Newport News, told WAVY that a student of his left a banana outside of his classroom door in what was "clearly a deliberate act."
"Someone left a banana at my door. The banana was perfectly placed in the doorway," Mungo told WAVY, who viewed photos of the incident. "Then it happened once a month."
The bananas play on the racist trope that compares Black people to monkeys.
After the sixth incident, Mungo reported the issue to school administrators, who used surveillance footage to determine that the culprit was one of Mungo's 10th grade students.
"I gave the student a chance to come clean. I asked him, 'Hey did you do this?' He said 'No,' he played dumb, 'No idea what you're talking about.' So I said 'OK, go down to the assistant principal,'" Mungo told WAVY. "I'm the only Black teacher he has. He has six other teachers. No other teachers were involved."
According to the school website, Menchville High's 2020 student body was nearly 40% white, 34% Black, 15% Hispanic, 6% mixed, and about 5% Asian.
Mungo told WAVY that the student was removed from his class and given a two-day suspension. A spokesperson for Menchville High School did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
"Initially when the parents were contacted, the parents seemed to be truly embarrassed. Then when the student was suspended and the parents were informed, then the parents were irate," Mungo told the outlet. "It's 2022. Just to have some type of hate crime is absolutely ridiculous. I was sickened."
WAVY reported that Mungo is "in the process" of pursuing legal action. It is not clear whether Mungo has retained a lawyer or filed suit yet as he did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
"I'm just fed up with the racism around, especially at our academic institutions. Coming from the HBCUs and other colleges, the bomb threats, the nooses, the bananas and now it's streaming into public education," Mungo said.
He added: "It's time to take a stand and just let people know it will not be tolerated. I know I'm not tolerating it. You have to speak up. You can't allow it to go on because then it will just continue to go on."