Lizeth Villanueva, a 7th grader at Lance Corporal Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Channelview, Texas, received an award from her teacher for being the "most likely to become a terrorist" days before classes let out for the summer.
The award was given to Villanueva in Avid program, a class that she had been taking for two years to prep her for college, according to Fox 26.
"I received a fake award that is supposed to be a joke that says 'most likely to become a terrorist' Lizeth Villanueva," Villanueva said.
When she returned home from school, Villanueva passed on the news to her mother, Ena Hernandez, who was in disbelief.
"It is kind of hard to believe somebody would do that," Hernandez said.
Villanueva said that while she normally does not get along with her teacher, she was "very upset" by the award.
"When she said my name I turned around like, 'What—what did she just say?' I was very upset, I was mad but I didn't show it," Villanueva said.
Villanueva's family said that the Channelview Independent School District addressed the issue by suspending the teacher for the last few days and then apologized in a statement:
The Channelview ISD Administration would like to apologize for the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom. Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents, and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district's vision, mission, and educational goals for our students.
Hernandez said that she believes the school district should rebuke the teacher further by firing her.
"So far I also know, the principal also mentioned to us that there were other parents complaining about a similar situation, the same thing," Hernandez said.