CHICAGO (AP) — The president of the Chicago Teachers Union says she isn’t stepping down over an “inappropriate” joke she made about Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
CHICAGO (AP) — The president of the Chicago Teachers Union says she isn’t stepping down over an "inappropriate" joke she made about Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Karen Lewis said Wednesday that while her remarks were insensitive, they were just 120 seconds of her 35-minute speech at a social justice event in Seattle last month.
Lewis said at the event she could tell Duncan "went to a private school, because if he had gone to a public school, he would have had that lisp fixed." Her comments were caught on video.
After the video was widely circulated Monday, Lewis called Duncan to apologize. An education department spokesman says Duncan accepted her apology.
Duncan led Chicago’s public schools before becoming education secretary. He has clashed with teachers’ unions over the expansion of non-union charter schools.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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