Pam Aister was fired after teaching at the school for 25 years (Picture: CBS5)

A teacher has been fired for sticking up for a young boy being bullied.

Malachi Gillis, nine, was subjected to racist taunts since the day he started school at Four Peaks Elementary school in Fountain Hills, Phoenix, yet he claims school administrators did nothing to help him.

His teacher, Pam Aister, decided to come to Malachi’s defence, however the school board claimed that her behaviour was ‘threatening’ and voted to dismiss her.

In a misconduct hearing by the school’s governing board, Ms Aister read a transcript of what she said to the bullies:


[Malachi] is in my room now, he is not alone. When you pick on him you pick on me. It’s not five to one any more, its five to two. There will be no more taunting, teasing or racial names called, that is not acceptable any more. Do you understand?

Malachi claims he was told ‘you belong to a zoo’, and was verbally attacked with such racial slurs as ‘n****r’ and ‘monkey’. His mother Jennifer has since moved him to another school.

Malachi and his mother (Picture: CBS5)

Jennifer told CBS5 the decision to fire Ms Aister made her ‘beyond mad’.



‘Why is she being fired for something she is supposed to do?’ she added.

Ms Aister, who has been a teacher at the school for 25 years, said it was a sad way to end her career, adding: ‘I hate to go out on lies’.