California Teachers Suspended After Taking Photo Holding Noose

Parents are outraged after they learned about a photo showing four smiling teachers holding a noose inside of a classroom at Summerwind Elementary School in Palmdale, California. The school's principal, Linda Brandts, emailed a copy of the photo to all members of the staff with the subject line: "Room 223 score."

The photo quickly went viral, and officials place the four teachers and Brandts on administrative leave.

"The Palmdale School District holds all employees to the highest standards and expectations," Palmdale schools superintendent Raul Maldonado said in a statement. "We will not stop until we find out exactly what did occur. We will not tolerate this type of behavior in our schools."

Some parents have asked to have their children moved to a different classroom and have demanded that Brandts and the four teachers be fired.

"We are disgusted. Absolutely disgusted," parent Breyon Clemmons told the Antelope Valley Press. "We drop our kids off with the idea that we are sending them to a culturally competent institution for learning. We think that we're sending them to a school; they're safe. Never do we think we're sending them to a plantation where they got nooses hanging up, and holding on to nooses. Taking pictures and smiling, where's the humor?"

Clemmons the paper that her ten-year-old daughter is afraid to go back to school and that other parents have refused to allow their kids to attend class with those teachers.

"The parents, we rallied together," Clemmons said. "We said none of our students will go inside of those classrooms until those teachers walk out of here."