HYATTSVILLE, Md. (AP) — A white principal at a private school near Washington says she regrets using a racial slur referring to black people during a Black History Month assembly. Citing a release from New Hope Academy Principal Joy Morrow, news outlets report a keynote speaker had canceled just before the school’s annual assembly, so Morrow decided to give a talk she gave 25 years ago about what Martin Luther King Jr.’s teachings meant to her.

A native of Dubuque, Iowa, she says she warned the children in grades 6 to 12 that she would use the slur to explain what she “experienced growing up in an all-white, racist community.” She said the word inadvertently distracted some students, so she regrets using it. The school has since held discussions with students and faculty.