A nonprofit civil rights advocate group is taking action after an incident last week at a Russellville middle school in which a teacher made what the group’s leader called a “racial slur” directed toward one of her Black students.

Demetrius Hudson is an eighth grader at Russellville Middle School. His teacher, Vicky Mathis, was telling a story Monday, Aug. 15, about her father, who had been a coal miner.

Mathis reportedly told the students that “when he came home from work, his face was black as Demetrius,” according to Patricia Hudson, Demetrius’ mother. The other students were silent, and one called later to ask if Demetrius was OK. Demetrius and another girl in the class were the only Black students present.

“She could have done any other analogy, but she chose to bring Demetrius’ race into it,” Hudson said.

Demetrius texted his mother about the incident immediately, and she called her close friend, James Ivery, the founder and president of the State of Georgia Civil Rights Memorial Group.

The civil rights group is a nonprofit based in Georgia, but it is not limited to Georgia issues. Ivery said he is tackling this Kentucky incident because “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“When I heard what happened in that classroom, it pricked me in my heart,” he said.

Ivery advised Hudson to “be stern, not angry” and contact Principal Darryl Green and Superintendent Larry Begley about what happened. After Mathis allegedly denied the incident, Begley asked Green to investigate, and four students in Mathis’ class corroborated Demetrius’ story.

At that point, Mathis allegedly admitted to her comments, and expressed remorse.

“It’s too late,” Ivery said. “She’s planted the little seed in the white kids’ heads.”

Hudson was then told by Begley that the district had addressed the incident by suspending Mathis for five weeks. He wouldn’t tell her whether the suspension was paid or unpaid.

Neither Begley nor Green responded to requests for comment. However, Begley did comment on the incident via a Facebook post on the Russellville Independent Schools page.

“We were made aware of a situation of a teacher that made an insensitive statement to a student in the classroom. We investigated the situation and took action,” his statement read. “While we are regretful this happened, we have taken action to try our very best to ensure that this never happens again. This is not a reflection of the values of our Russellville Family.”

The comments on the post, which has been shared over 60 times, were disabled. Hudson said she thinks disabling the comments was a move to try and hide the truth of what happened.

Mathis was not at school from Wednesday, Aug. 17, to Friday, Aug. 19. However, the following Monday, Aug. 22, Demetrius said he saw Mathis back teaching in the same classroom (Hudson took Demetrius out of the class following the incident).

“It makes me think that if you bring a teacher back after three days you’re agreeing with what she’s done,” Hudson said. “Because you didn’t take any action.”

Mathis also did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Ivery said that if the suspension was paid, it was nothing more than a “glorified vacation.” If it was unpaid, he still thinks Mathis’ actions warrant a greater punishment. He’s currently working on a petition to permanently remove Mathis from teaching, he said.

Once completed, Ivery will present the petition to the mayor, the city council, the governor and the Board of Education, he said, in order to disseminate it throughout the state and country.

The danger in an incident like this is the “mindset” of teachers who think comments like those made to Demetrius are acceptable, Ivery said.

It sets a bad standard for the other students, he said, and makes them ask themselves, “the teacher did it, why can’t we do it?”