BLUEFIELD, WV (WVNS)–A mother of a student at a Mercer County school claims a substitute teacher called her child a racial slur.

Kaprease Flack, a student at Bluefield Middle School, said a substitute teacher at his school called him a racial slur while in class. Flack claims the teacher called him a “monkey”. He said this happened the week of Monday, September 5, 2022.

Flack immediately told his mother, Breonia Steptoe.

“I didn’t think something like that would happen to my kids, especially the way that it did. I didn’t think that a teacher, let alone anyone who’s supposed to be leading our children, would be bold enough to say something like that,” Steptoe said.

Steptoe said called the school. She told 59News she first had a sit down conversation with the Assistant Principal, teacher, and her son.

According to Steptoe, the meeting between them was unprofessional and she felt nothing good came out of it.

On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, she talked with Mercer County Superintendent Ed Toman with the where she said the conversation went in a more positive way.

Flack, said after he was allegedly called the racial slur, it made him feel embarrassed.

“It made me feel very upset and I was very uncomfortable. I didn’t want to go to school for several days,” Flack said.

Steptoe said she’s still awaiting to see actions taken with the substitute teacher.

“I honestly feel like the teacher doesn’t deserve her job because I feel like if you can be bold enough to say that to a student in front of all the other students then I feel like you’d be bold enough to do it again. And what if this next child that you do this to doesn’t handle it in the way that my son did,” Steptoe said.

59News reached out to the Mercer County school system about this story.

The following social media posted was immediately published to the Mercer County Public Schools Facebook page.

“Mercer County Schools administration acknowledges allegations that an employee made an inappropriate statement to a student. We are actively investigating, and it is premature to discuss the investigation prior to its completion…Mercer County Schools is committed to swiftly and thoroughly investigating claims of this nature.”

Mercer County Public Schools | Facebook