A video of an unnamed East Valley School teacher writing the "N-word" during a class lesson last week has gone viral and has over 35,000 views on Twitter.

The N-word has been used as an offensive racial slur since the 19th century (in both language and classic literature) to denigrate African Americans; its use continues in modern times.

KIMA-TV posted a video of the brief moments after the East Valley teacher wrote the racial slur on a classroom board (the word is blurred out in the edited video). The Twitter user who posted the original unedited video claims to be a relative of the high school student who initially recorded the classroom incident.

The superintendent of East Valley School District No. 90, John Schieche, has since placed the teacher on administrative leave and says his investigation is ongoing as to why the teacher felt it was appropriate to spell out the N-word and why the word was being discussed in their high school's Spanish class curriculum.

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