Was Desarae Prather’s 6 year old son the victim of racial abuse? How what was supposed to be an innocent ‘Happy birthday’ song sung with monkey motifs led to a mother being outraged and a Polk County, Florida teacher now facing possible disciplining.
Was a Polk County, Florida teacher just trying to install fun and humor among her young kindergarten class or was she revealing racist digs to a six year old boy in front of his peers?
The mother of a 6 year old ‘black boy’ in Florida has alleged her son being the victim of racial abuse after the boy’s Polk County teacher singing a ‘monkey’ version of ‘Happy Birthday’ to her son during class recently. The episode has since led to the teacher receiving death threats.
‼️PURE EVIL: A White teacher thought it was “funny” to sing a RACIST version of the birthday song to a Black 6-year-old student on his special day. 😱
In front of the class, she mocked him with:
🎶 “Happy Birthday to you… You look like a monkey, you live in a zoo.”This wasn’t… pic.twitter.com/4ogdyByRDO
— i Expose Racists & Pedos (@SeeRacists) October 1, 2025
How the use of certain words continue to have pejorative racial overtones
The episode which was shared by the boy’s mother, Desarae Prather of Bartow on social media before soon going viral featured the un-named teacher singing a ‘monkey’ version of the song to the boy in a school auditorium while surrounded by classmates.
After the students finish singing ‘Happy Birthday to You,’ a woman is heard addressing the boy.
‘Would you like the funny song now that I sing to you?’ she asks, prompting a nod from the boy.
‘OK, it goes like this,’ says the woman, who proceeds to sing in a jazzy style accompanied by finger snaps: ‘Happy birthday to you. You live in the zoo. You look like a monkey, and you smell like one, too.’
As some students laugh, the teacher giggles and adds, ‘Whoo, give him a clap, everybody.’
The incident is alleged to have taken place on Sept. 29 at Floral Avenue Elementary School in Bartow with the Polk County Public Schools now investigating the incident.
The teacher, who is not seen in the clip, emailed a copy of the video to Prather later that day with the ‘outraged’ mother going on to re-share the clip on Instagram and TikTok. The un-named teacher according to Prather has led to the educator ‘too embarrassed’ to return to school.
NEW: Florida mom fumes and accuses her son’s school of being ‘racist’ after his teacher sang him the “funny birthday song.”
The elementary school has since launched an investigation after Desarae Prather said her son’s teacher was being “racist” to him.
The lyrics in question… pic.twitter.com/5eaRqHS5iv
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 2, 2025
Desarae Prather black mom outraged by ‘monkey’ song
‘I couldn’t believe it,’ Prather told the Ledger, ‘It’s nothing funny.’
Prather said she had never heard the alternate version of ‘Happy Birthday to You,’ a variation that children sometimes sing to each other.
Said the mother, ‘You look like a monkey. You live in a zoo, and you smell like one, too.’ I don’t approve of that, and that’s you humiliating him in front of his peers. No child should have to go to school and feel like they can’t confide in an authority figure without them calling them racial slurs, and that goes for any kid, not just my child.’
Prather said she did not respond to the teacher but promptly complained to the school. She said that school employees told her they could do nothing but relay her complaint to the Polk County Public Schools office.
The district issued a statement on its social media channels the evening of Sept. 30.
‘PCPS has been made aware of a video of a teacher singing to an elementary school student and his classmates,’ the statement said. ‘This is now being reviewed by district staff and our HR department. We understand and share the concerns about the teacher’s actions and judgement. As a public school system we serve students and families of all cultures and backgrounds; we expect our employees to always keep that in mind as they interact with others.’
As of the morning of Oct. 1, Prather said she had not heard from anyone with the school district.
Was a young black child demonized and humiliated?
The mother claims her son has grown so upset over the episode that he stayed home from school on October 1.
‘My son can’t — he’s not even in school right now, because he feels as if people are going to call him a monkey, and his feelings are hurt,’ she told the Ledger. ‘Now I have to seek counseling for him because he was crying for not to be back in her class or even go back to that school. I shouldn’t have to wake up every day to see that my son feels this way.’
Prather said that her posts of the video have spread widely, drawing comments or reposts from such prominent figures as civil rights attorney Ben Crump, actor and comedian D.L. Hughley and rapper Diamond ATL.
For the mother, the ‘monkey song’ underscores racial undertones that have long been used to demean and dehumanize Black people. The mother took note the setting of the teacher being white and her son’s classmates white only added to her son’s ‘trauma and humiliation.’
‘To know where we come from, and our ancestors and for us to be labeled like that, because when they call us, ‘Monkey,’ they’re saying we’re ugly; we act like monkeys. Those are remarks I don’t like at all,’ the parent told 10 Tampa Bay News.
A term of endearment or deep rooted stigma and hurt tied to systemic racism?
Responded one user on the web, ‘This wasn’t a “joke.” It was targeted humiliation of a Black child on his birthday—teaching cruelty, not care. No Black child should EVER have to endure this.’
Wrote another, ‘Poor taste in singing it, to be sure, probably not intended to be racist, though. White people just do things without realizing the consequence.’
So virulent have been some of the responses on social media, that the un-identified teacher has since received death threats.
Despite the negative connotations attributed to the word monkey in relation to black people in the U.S who endured slavery and institutionalized discrimination and racism, most commentators argued the teacher had acted in good faith and that the boy’s mother had misinterpreted her actions and the song’s lyrics.
Responded one commentator on social media, ‘When a child is called a “monkey,” it’s typically a term of endearment rooted in the fun, lighthearted characteristics associated with monkeys in popular culture, not tied to race or ethnicity.’
Added another, ‘…imagine if we all just stopped taking jokes seriously; maybe we’d actually learn to laugh again, not just cancel each other.’
Wrote another, ‘This isn’t racism, it’s a childhood song everyone’s grown up with. Turning a harmless birthday tune into a scandal is absurd and shows just how easily outrage culture twists innocence into controversy.’
Posted another, ‘We sang this version when I went to elementary school too. It’s not a new song she made for that particular child. Why is everyone sooo offended by everything nowadays?’
Reflected another, ‘Making this a problem will traumatize the student more than the song would have.’
Prather now insists her son’s teacher should apologize to her son along with being disciplined.
‘I feel like she should own up to her actions,’ Prather said. ‘I feel like she should write an apology to my son and my family, because it was unacceptable, and my son is going to be traumatized for life. This is going worldwide, and I feel as if she should get fired, because that’s unacceptable.’
Prather, meanwhile, says she is considering removing her son from the school entirely. For now, she has had him transferred to a different class.
‘I don’t play games about my child,’ Prather said.
To date the un-named teacher has not been suspended and continues to be employed at the school. It remained unclear if the educator had yet to issue an apology as the boy’s mother continues to allege that her son is the victim of racial abuse.
And simply not the recipient of ‘funny’ humor between young children and their teacher…
