A teacher at an elementary school in Vancouver has been suspended while an investigation is underway into why the N-word was used in class material.

The Vancouver School Board is not identifying the teacher pending the investigation results, but confirms a teacher at Trafalgar Elementary distributed worksheets to students with the derogatory term.

“This situation at Trafalgar Elementary is under investigation. The teacher has been removed from service pending the investigation,” the VSB said in an email. “We are unable to comment further on labour relations investigations to respect the confidentiality of the process.”

In an email to Postmedia, Corina Ciortan, a parent of one of the students, said while she thought it was inappropriate for the word to be used on a spelling test, she thought it was important to put into context why the teacher was using the worksheets.

She said the children were reading the book Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker, in which the word is used many times. She said the teacher was using the book to educate students how words can be used to harm others.

She’s worried the teacher’s suspension is having a negative impact on the students.

“I strongly feel that suspending the teacher is a big mistake,” she wrote.

Last year, the Vancouver School Board pulled classroom material that asked students to match the word “squaw” to “Aboriginal woman.” 

The educational material was used at Templeton Secondary School in Vancouver related to the graphic novel “Susanna Moodie: Roughing It in the Bush.”

The novel is an adaptation of a Canadian classic first published in 1852, in which the word squaw shows up 39 times. It was accompanied by a teaching guide that described the book’s language as politically incorrect.