School fired worker for using a slur while reporting a student’s use of the word

The Des Moines Public Schools forced an employee to resign or be fired after she reported a student’s use of a racial slur by using the word while explaining the student’s conduct to disciplinary officials, according to state records.

State records indicate that Anne Eslinger worked for the school district as a full-time employee, monitoring students in study halls at Lincoln High School, until she was forced to resign on May 16, 2025.

The day before she resigned, she was overseeing students in a study hall when one of the students began harassing another student and using a racial slur commonly referred to as “the n-word.”

According to testimony at a recent hearing on the matter, Eslinger asked the student to stop using the slur and ultimately took the student to the school’s student services center for potential discipline.

While waiting in the student services center, the student again used the slur. Eslinger instructed the student to stop, but the student continued to repeat the word. Eslinger allegedly tried to get the attention of a discipline coordinator to help her with the student by saying, “Do you hear him? Do you hear what he is saying?”

According to the hearing testimony, the discipline coordinator appeared not to hear Eslinger or notice the student. To get the coordinator’s attention, Eslinger stated, “He’s saying –,” and repeated the slur.

At that point, the discipline coordinator reportedly walked over, took custody of the student, and Eslinger returned to the classroom where she had been working. Later that day, she was summoned to a meeting with district officials and was asked what had happened.

Hearing testimony indicates Eslinger explained that in trying to inform the coordinator of the student’s conduct she repeated the slur the student had been using. During the meeting, she apologized for having used the word but emphasized she had not directed the remark at anyone and was simply trying to communicate information about the student’s behavior.

After the meeting, the district placed Eslinger on administrative leave pending an investigation. According to hearing testimony, the district’s human resources manager spoke to Eslinger the next morning and gave her the option of either being fired or resigning to avoid public disclosure of the offense that triggered her discharge. Eslinger submitted her resignation later that day.

The school district then challenged Eslinger’s application for benefits and appealed a fact-finder’s decision that she was qualified for the assistance.

The matter then went before Administrative Law Judge Patrick Thomas, who presided over a hearing on the matter on Oct. 8, 2025. Eslinger and Lincoln High School Associate Principal Wes Wolven were among those who testified at the hearing. Thomas then ruled in Eslinger’s favor, finding she had not committed misconduct that warranted the denial of unemployment benefits.

“While (Eslinger) should not have repeated the remark made by the student, (she) credibly testified that she only made the remark to inform another employee of what was happening so that she could get help addressing the situation,” Thomas ruled, noting that Eslinger had no record of prior discipline for similar behavior. “Under these circumstances, a single instance of an employee repeating an inappropriate remark in order to inform another employee of what a student had said — without more — is not disqualifying misconduct.”

A Des Moines school district spokesman declined comment on the case Thursday.

Eslinger said Thursday in an interview that when district officials spoke to her about the incident they gave her no indication as to how they thought she should have communicated information about the student’s use of the slur but advised her there was a “zero tolerance policy” on the use of such language by employees.

“I was completely surprised by their decision,” she said. “I was really taken off guard. I was crying, I begged. I really loved my job.”

Eslinger had worked for the school district since February 2023.

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.