Fired for the word, 'negro', a junior high school instructor teaching Spanish is still unemployed and she is suing the school that sacked her.

On March 2012, Petrona Smith was fired from P.S. 211 in Bronx, New York simply because of a misinterpretation of her usage of 'negro' in class.

Petrona Smith, a 65-year old black teacher filed a court case against the school explaining that she did not use the word 'negro' to create a racial slur. She said the incident was just a misunderstanding.

According to reports from NY Post, Smith was fired for word 'negro' because of an incident that happened when she was teaching Spanish lesson about colors. Negro, of course, translates to black in Spanish.

Reportedly, a seventh-grade student in her class was offended by the term, thinking the word to be a racial insult. It's unclear whether Smith directed the term at the student during the lesson or not. But regardless, the student reported it to the school authorities.

Basically, a Spanish teacher was fired for using word 'negro' for a lesson about colors. But this is where the story gets even better. Smith is black, a native from the West Indies, and the school is bilingual. Shaun Reid, the teacher's lawyer stated that the termination is ridiculous, saying "They haven't even accounted for how absurd it is for someone who's black to be using a racial slur to a student."

The school has no response yet regarding the lawsuit filed against them.

NY Post also noted that Petrona Smith is claiming that she was, in fact, receiving verbal abuse from her students. She was allegedly called a "f*cking monkey."

Furthermore, since she was terminated by the school, the old woman has not yet been able to find another job.