Kennedy Middle School special education teacher fired after sending email containing racial slur

A Kankakee teacher is out of a job after she sent a racist post using her school email. 

What started as a gaming thread amongst teachers led to the school board terminating the teacher on Wednesday night.

It was report card pickup at Kennedy Middle School in Kankakee. As parents head into the building to meet with teachers, there's one teacher they can't talk to. 

Students are gearing up for spring break, while the Kankakee County School District 111 Board of Education held a special meeting to talk about a teacher's future.

Ksenia Matson was a special education teacher at the middle school. She sent an email to co-workers that read, "the ten little N-words."

Board President Christopher Bohlen told CBS News Chicago the post was sent by email during a teacher game thread, but there was nothing funny about the racist email.

"Some of the staff were playing a tag game, and, somehow, this material got included in the post," he said. 

And while the post was only sent internally to other teachers, District 111's superintendent said that, whether parents saw it or not, the post was inexcusable.

"It was the fact that you felt that it was okay to communicate a message that was so indecent and insulting to our staff members and our students, though the email was not intended for students," said Teresa Lance, superintendent of Kankakee School District 111.

The superintendent said that the teacher, in her resignation letter, told the district that she offered an apology, but the board refused to accept the resignation. Instead, they opted to put a termination on her record.

"And that's why we did not accept the resignation. This is a serious issue," Bohlen said.

This is the second incident in recent years where a staff member used a racial slur.

Back in 2023, a teacher was recorded calling a high school student the N-word in class. The board terminated him, and now, for this latest incident to happen, the school board is sending another clear message. 

As a result of this incident, we have actually put in multiple measures to ensure that it doesn't happen again," Lance said.