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A Long Island middle school teacher has come under fire for 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 “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 a 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.