CNN
—

A black middle school student told CNN he was angry when his teacher, a white man, tell his class that his race “is the superior”.

Videos of the conversation in a classroom in Pflugerville, Texas, were posted on social media last week. The teacher seen in the video was fired, according to the Superintendent of the Pflugerville Independent School District (PfISD), Dr. Douglas Killian.

Student Karmello Luellen was in the classroom and told CNN’s Laura Coates on Tuesday night that the teacher made remarks about race after asking to use the bathroom.

“It started because I asked him to go to the bathroom and he said no because he was racist. And then I asked him, ‘What do you mean by that?’ Karmello said. “That’s when it started and he started talking about it.”

In a video posted online, the teacher can be seen telling his multiracial class, “Deep in my heart, I am ethnocentric, which means I think my race is the best,” as students react audibly both on- and off-screen.

An off-camera student asks, “So White is better than anything?”

The teacher replies, “Let me finish. I think everyone thinks that. They just aren’t honest about it.

After another discussion in the video, a student asks, “You said you were racist, right? »

“I did, yes, I’m trying to be honest,” the professor replies.

Karmello described his struggles with his emotions when the teacher made the comments.

“It was like the anger was rising – but I controlled it and it went down,” he said.

Karmello’s mother, Janae Hardy, told CNN her son could be heard in one of the videos telling the teacher, “I had respect for you, but now I have no respect for you.”

“I had to talk to him. I was speaking from my heart, saying what I had to say,” Karmello said.

In its statement Monday, the school district called the conversation “inappropriate” but did not provide further context.

“Last Friday, November 11, Pflugerville ISD officials became aware of an inappropriate conversation a Bohls Middle School teacher had had with students during an advisory class,” Superintendent Killian wrote. . “As of Monday morning November 14, the teacher in question is no longer employed by Pflugerville ISD and we are actively seeking a replacement,” the statement read.

“We want to reiterate that this conversation does not align with our core beliefs and does not reflect our district or our culture at Bohls Middle School,” Killian said in his statement. “The consultative discussion was inappropriate, inaccurate and unacceptable; and this type of interaction will not be tolerated at any PfISD school.

Hardy said while the district he should also be out of the teaching profession.

“I really feel like he shouldn’t be teaching anywhere. I know he’s out of the Pflugerville district but I don’t think he should be teaching kids if you feel like that,” she said.

The teacher in question has not been identified by the PfISD. He was identified to CNN by a parent who shared audio of the exchange and said their child was in the videos, but he did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.