A teacher in New York has been placed on leave after he reportedly made Black students pick cotton and wear shackles during a lesson on slavery.
Students at the School of the Arts in Rochester say the white seventh-grade social studies teacher referred to himself as “massah” and ordered Black students to pick the seeds out of the cotton. He also made Black students wear handcuffs and leg shackles in class, according to Democrat and Chronicle. When the students were unable to get out of the shackles, he allegedly told them that it was “ok, your ancestors couldn’t either.”
White students were allowed to opt out of the lesson.
“He gave the whole class cotton, and we were made to pick out the cotton seeds,” student Jahmiere O’Neal said. “He said, ‘Better clean it right, boy.'”
“He said, ‘It’s cotton, you’re going to be picking cotton today,’ so I immediately was like, ‘Oh, I’m not doing that,’” another student Janasia Brown. “And then he was like, ‘Do it. It’s for a good grade.’”
The students reported the incident to their parents and they reported it to the school district.
“I honestly did not believe him, because I never would have expected anything like that to be happening in this day and age,” parent Vialma Ramos-O’Neal said. “The children of color were not given a choice and whether or not they wanted to partake in this, the Caucasian children were able to decline throw out their cotton and do as separate activity. But my child had to be forced to do that, as well as be handcuffed, as well as be shackled. Absolutely not. This is unacceptable.”
The Rochester City School District says the teacher was placed on leave and an investigation is underway, according to WROC.
“In a District of black and brown students, it is important to be sensitive of the historical framework by which our students are engaging and learning,” Rochester Board of Education President Cynthia Elliot said in a statement.
According to the Democrat and Chronicle, approximately half of the students at the school are Black.
