Teachers disciplined after awarding 'pupil most likely to become terrorist'

The certificate a teacher presented to Lizeth Villanueva
The certificate a teacher presented to Lizeth Villanueva

A number of teachers at a school in Texas are facing disciplinary action after staging a mock awards in which a pupil was presented with a certificate naming her "most likely to become a terrorist"

13-year-old  Lizeth Villanueva is a student at Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Channelview, close to Houston. She was given the 'award' at a recent school event, in which several other students were also presented with certificates.

"[The teacher] said that some people might get offended, but she doesn't really care about our feelings. She was laughing about it," Lizeth told KHOU.

Other teachers were said to be watching and laughing as she received the certificate.

“I do not feel comfortable with this," Lizeth added. "I do not feel comfortable being in the same classroom with [the teacher].”

 Her mother, Ena Hernandez, said she had received a personal apology from the school's principal, but wants further disciplinary action to take place.

"It doesn’t look good at all, especially coming from a teacher, a grown-up woman," she said. "It doesn’t look good because everything that’s going on right now."

The school district released a statement saying: "The Channelview ISD Administration would like to apologize for the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom.

"Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district’s vision, mission and educational goals for our students.

"The teachers involved in this matter have been disciplined according to district policy and the incident is still under investigation."