A black high school security guard was fired after the school said he violated their zero-tolerance policy for using the N-word when he told a student not to call him the N-word.

Marlon Anderson, a security assistant at Madison West High School in Wisconsin, said he got called a "bit@# @ss N----" by a student and responded do "not call me n----!" The school then fired him.



"Regardless of context or circumstance, racial slurs are not acceptable in our schools," Karen Boran, the principal at the high school, said in an email to parents Wednesday, according to Madison.

Anderson said he was planning on "fighting" against the school district over his firing. The employee handbook allows for the security guard to appeal the school's decision, and the teacher's union said they had already filed an appeal.

The students at Madison West planned a walkout Friday to support Anderson. The school had five incidents last year where teachers or staff used racist slurs in the presence of students. This is the only incident of the school's zero-tolerance policy being used this year.

Gloria Reyes, the school board president, said the school board will "review our approach, the underlying policies, and examine them with a racial equity lens understanding that universal policies can often deepen inequities."