I don’t understand how this could happen at all.

In Wausau, Wisconsin, an investigation by the school board after a student complaint found that East High School’s band teacher, Robert Perkins, used “racist and sexist” language in the course of his teaching directed at Asian-American students in his class.

But it was okay, because he didn’t mean anything by it!

“While a preponderance of the evidence shows that Mr. Perkins did not engage in harassing or discriminatory behavior, he did engage in insensitive and unprofessional conduct,” the district superintendent wrote in a letter this week. “Witnesses indicate that he did use language that could be insensitive to students of different protected classes, including race and sex, but that language does not rise to the level of discrimination or harassment.” The letter argued that Perkins often uses humor to “engage students and create a ‘fun’ environment,'” and creates a “safe space” for all students, but that Perkins’ “humor” sometimes caused “unease” among students when “his comments are racial or sexist in nature.” However, the letter assures parents, Perkins “does not mean to harm anyone.”

Oh. WHAT? Comments that are “racial or sexist in nature” and cause unease are the literal definition of harassment. Reportedly Perkins used such “fun” terms as “chink” and “ching chong” while referring to Asian-American students. One does not have to use too much imagination to come up with equivalent slurs referring to some other minority groups that would have had Perkins out on the curb with a cardboard box and a boot mark on his fanny before he could say, “Hey! I was only kidding!”

An open letter signed by leaders of Wausau’s Asian American community condemned the reinstatement of the band teacher, saying in part, “This decision sends a strong message that using racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs are permissible, so long as they made are in good faith, and that is just unacceptable to us.”

This seems to be a fair assessement. At very least, the common sense and judgment of a teacher who would use “chink” in a classroom has to be judged as inadequate for the level of trust required for any teacher. Has this guy been living in a cave?

For that matter, has the entire school district been living in the same cave?

“Overall, we are angry, hurt, and worried about the kind of classroom culture East High School tolerates as well as the unacceptably low standards it allows for its teachers,” the open letter states.

And rightly so.