Lesson in outrage
Drama teach used n-word in live show
A white Brooklyn Heights middle-school drama teacher is under investigation after a video surfaced of her roleplaying a student using the N-word during a stand-up performance, The Post has learned.
Karen Sklaire, a 14-year theater-arts teacher for the city’s Department of Education who also doubles as an actress and comedian, was hired in the fall to teach drama to seventh and eighth graders at MS 8 on Tillary Street.
After students this week got wind of the now-deleted online clip — which shows Sklaire acting as a student, saying, “Yo, n---a. What’s poppin’?” — they threatened to stage a walkout in protest but were persuaded not to by Principal Trish Peterson, school sources said.
Peterson, a close family friend of DOE Chancellor Carmen Fariña, e-mailed a vague letter to school parents Thurs- day regarding Sklaire without naming the 47-year-old teacher.
“The safety and well-being of students is our top priority. We wanted to make you aware that serious allegations involving one of our teachers have been reported and will be subject to a thorough investigation,” Peterson wrote.
“We take this matter extremely seriously and will ensure appropriate follow-up action is taken.”
In the YouTube video, Sklaire is seen onstage performing her 2015 award-winning, autobiographical show, “Ripple of Hope: One Teacher’s Journey to Make an Impact,” inspired by her time working as a drama teacher in the South Bronx.
“I notice all the kids in their first-day-of-school outfits. They’re so cute. I see this one pint-sized cutie with a little bow tie tap his friend on the shoulder and say, ‘Yo n---a, what’s poppin’?” Sklaire says to the audience in the one-woman off-Broadway act as roars of laughter are heard.
Switching from the student persona back to herself, Sklaire says: “I don’t know what popping is, but I think it’s bad.”
Sklaire is still teaching at MS 8 pending an investigation, officials said. “I wouldn’t want her teaching my kids,” said Jerry Baines, 39, whose 11-year-old son attends the school.
Commenting on the video, Baines said: “It’s inappropriate. It’s very insensitive to us all as African-Americans. I teach my kids not to use [the Nword].”
A couple whose daughter attends the school said “some kids were angry and decided to confront [Sklaire]” about the video. “In today’s day and age, she should be out of the classroom for a while with no pay,” one parent said.
A school source said Sklaire is “trying to tell the kids it’s acting, it’s like telling a story.”
Sklaire refused to comment to a reporter Friday.