A Long Island middle school teacher has come under fire are allegedly instructing students to caption photos of slavery with humorous messages.
In a move that was reportedly meant to cure the teacher’s boredom, the students at John W. Dodd Middle School in Freeport, N.Y., were told to write the “funny” titles under black-and-white photos of enslaved people in cotton fields, Yahoo.com reports.
The handwritten captions included “Black girls work hard play hard”; “Us black people need to get out”; and “Getting that money.”
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According to Darlene McCurty, whose granddaughter attends the school, but was not part of the class assignment, the eighth-grade teacher behind the offensive assignment is white.
As of the 2017-18 school year, J.W. Dodd Middle School is made up of mostly Hispanic students (66%) and only 25% of the seventh and eighth graders are Black, according to the New York State Education Department.
McCurty’s granddaughter has a friend in the teacher’s class, who shared the images with the woman. The assignment was condemned in a Sept. 20 Facebook post in which McCurty noted that the friend refused to write funny titles because the child was disturbed by the task.
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Dr. Kishore Kuncham, superintendent of Freeport Public Schools, addressed the assignment in statement Sunday: “I have been informed that during a recent eighth grade Reconstruction Era social studies lesson at J.W. Dodd Middle School, a faculty member is reported to have used directions to describe an assignment that were very upsetting to some students and families.”
The statement continued: “The emotional and social wellness of our students is always our highest priority and we take any insensitive comments made by staff very seriously. I have directed that an investigation of these claims be immediately conducted. Since this matter involves a District employee and is a personnel matter, there will be no further comment until a thorough investigation and careful consideration of the facts of this matter are completed.”
Kuncham said the teacher at the center of the drama is currently under investigation over the assignment.
The post New York middle school teacher under investigation for ‘funny’ slavery assignment appeared first on theGrio.
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