Two Altoona Area High School teachers are being investigated separately by the school district and the Blair County NAACP after a racially insensitive incident that allegedly occurred in a classroom Thursday morning.

According to Blair County NAACP President Andrae Holsey, the two teachers are being investigated along with other school administrators, including a school police officer.

“Both teachers are responsible,” Holsey said. “There are at least two (incidents of discrimination) directly tied to this individual student.”

Holsey said the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act protects people from discrimination for “features that are platonic to their race — hair texture, hair style and so on.”

Karyn Shields, the aunt of ninth grader Dustin Shields, said Dustin’s school ID photo was hung on a wall behind his teacher’s desk with another picture of an asparagus-looking cartoon character from the faith-based children’s show, “VeggieTales.”

Shields said a teacher pointed out the photos to Dustin, a black student with curly afro-textured hair, who walked to the front of the classroom, removed the photos and crumpled them into his pocket, she said.

When Dustin returned home at the end of the day, he told his aunt what had happened.

“The teachers involved tried to get him to throw the paper away,” she said.

According to Holsey, two school police officers entered the classroom and allegedly made fun of and laughed at Dustin, and one of the officers threatened to call his aunt.

“We are going to assess whether there was a violation of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and whether or not there is a culture of this conduct from other staff and administrators,” he said.

In a meeting with Superintendent Brad Hatch on Friday morning, Shields told Hatch if Dustin had posted the teacher’s picture, the incident would have been a completely different story with severe repercussions.

“You would have had no problem making sure he was kicked out of this school, so I don’t understand why there’s a problem that you can’t get these teachers out of here,” she reportedly told Hatch during the meeting.

The school district began its investigation on Thursday, according to district Community Relations Director Paula Foreman.

“We are aware of the incident, and it is being investigated,” Foreman said. “But since it’s a personnel issue, that’s really all I can say about it right now.”

She said she doesn’t know how long the district’s investigation will take to complete.

Foreman, Hatch and Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Mark Harrington met with Holsey on Monday afternoon as part of the NAACP’s investigation.

Holsey said the Blair County NAACP is currently taking complaints from the broader community to see what policy recommendations they can give to the school board at the Feb. 12 meeting.

He said if policies don’t change within the district, the NAACP will refer the Shields family to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and notify the Department of Education.

“It would trigger an investigation and a comprehensive review of policies within the school district by state and federal agencies,” he said. “They have the power to criminally prosecute.”

Unsatisfied with just an investigation, Shields said she also plans to attend the board meeting to demand that the teachers involved be terminated by the district.

“I really hope that the two teachers involved are no longer teaching with the district,” she said. “If that means they lose their teaching licenses, then that’s what that means.”

Shields said she doesn’t want the teachers to complete additional training to learn acceptable behavior or see the matter “swept under the rug” like other incidents involving her children.

“We teach these kids that when something happens you go to your teacher and voice your concerns, but when your teacher’s the one that’s causing the issues, you can’t go to them,” she said.

Last year, on the first day of the school year, Shields said she had to leave work to obtain a doctor’s note because Dustin was not allowed back into his classroom until he threw away an unopened bottle of water he brought from home.

She said he has a medical condition in which a vascular ring formed around his esophagus, restricting his airways. He obsessively drinks water because he thinks he’s going to choke, she said.

“When I got there I said, ‘I don’t understand why this is necessary because COVID is still very much a thing,’ and last school year we were required to send our school children water,” she said.

Also last year, Shields said Dustin was kicked out of school after he and his friends were “playing around.”

“I don’t know the entire thing because the school was very vague about it,” she said, adding school police officers showed up at their house with a Chromebook computer and said he was being sent to an alternative school at the Stevens Building.

“My kid’s not an angel. I know he’s not,” Shields said. “(But) I feel like they really didn’t want him to come back this school year as it is.”

Since posting about the incident on social media, Shields said multiple parents have “come forward” with messages of their own. She said she has directed them all to the NAACP.

“Enough is enough,” Shields said. “These kids deserve better than this.”

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.