BEDFORD, Texas – A Texas elementary teacher claims ignorance in using a racial slur as a nickname for her class of sixth-graders.

A parent of a Bell Manor Elementary student Fox 4 he learned from his son that the child’s teacher nicknamed his sixth-grade class the “Jighaboos” and he went to the school to confirm the story because “I had to see it myself.”

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When the parent – who did not want to be identified – visited the classroom recently, he took a picture of a sign on the classroom wall that his son said students are required to recite each day.

The laminated sign read:

Mrs. (name redacted)’s Jighaboos are at school today to achieve our 6th grade goals and prepare for 7th grade.

The father said other classes received different nicknames, like the “Dream Team,” The Dallas Morning News reports.

“You put Dream Team and then you have the Jighaboos,” he said, adding that the teacher is white and students are mostly white, black and Hispanic. “Really? Really with that? That’s … unacceptable.”

“She makes them recite that out loud,” the man said.

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Officials with the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District issued a statement of apology to parents about the Jighaboo name, which has a long history as an offensive slang term for African Americans.

The district claims the teacher involved had no clue what the word actually meant.

“We would like to extend an apology for the inappropriate actions taken by one of our elementary teachers who failed to vet a class name,” the statement read. “We take this situation seriously and the issue was immediately addressed with the principal and classroom teacher. Both the principal and the teacher have apologized to the parent reporting this concern.”

The father told Fox 4 “ignorance is not a defense.”

Folks who commented about the situation on Facebook seemed to have mixed reactions.

“She apologized and corrected the name. I personally don’t think she would have used it if she knew the history of the word,” Rheanette Williams wrote. “Leave her alone.”

“Ummmm, I never heard of the word ‘jighaboos’ either, but the question is, how did she and why use it?” Brian Carrell posted.

“Maybe instead of making it a huge issue of it the parent simply asks the teacher if she was aware of its meaning and go from there,” Denis Scheidel commented.

“This teacher has Google. It took seconds for Google to say the definition. How are you going to put stuff up like this and not know what it is?” James Briley wrote. “The teacher is at fault and an ‘I didn’t know’ is an unacceptable rebuttal. It’s their job to know these things before incorporating them into their classroom.”

“I’ve never heard of that word but I’m also no surrounded by people who would use derogatory terms either. My only question is… if she didn’t know it meant THAT what did she think it meant?” Daniela Palacios questioned.