Students at the Shorewood Intermediate School in Wisconsin allege that on April 1, their physical education teacher told African American students to research games played by “enslaved children.” If true, this is far, far from appropriate—and far from an April Fools’ joke, too.
As of now, the administration has started an internal investigation of the incident. The teacher in question has been placed on leave.
But let’s backtrack and dig into the details.
According to the seventh-graders, the PE teacher initiated a class activity about games from around the world. Seems innocuous enough, right? Perhaps a good opportunity to learn about other cultures.
But as multiple students have corroborated, this activity went from creative to disturbing really, really fast. How disturbing? Students reported that they were separated into groups for these games based on their race.
"She told us to all go get into our groups and then she told us that she would help us research slave games," said MaHailey Stephens, as reported by WITI (a CNN affiliate). “I went to my mom, I'm like, mom, what are slave games.’”
"I've never heard of such a thing. I never knew slaves had opportunities to play games," said Dr. Reshunda Stephens, MaHailey’s mother.
If something can make this situation even worse, this reportedly isn’t the first time parents have taken issue with this particular teacher.
"This child was asked to be part of the colored club," said MaHailey's mother when describing a situation with her older daughter, who had the same teacher last year.
"We have to work together, have those courageous conversations and provide support not only for the adults but most importantly for our children because it's not fair for our children to have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable," Dr. Stephens continued.
In addition to MaHailey’s reporting of the events, fellow seventh-grader Alexis Averette, reported to
WTMJ (another CNN affiliate) that she was forced to "reenact slavery in front of the entire class." Allegedly, she was told to demonstrate the “game” even after she said she was uncomfortable.
"I was completely shocked," Yuri Averette, the student’s father,
told the outlet. "I knew it was a problem immediately when she said she was uncomfortable." Which is actually an important way to look at it: No matter what a teacher intends their message or lesson to be, when kids are uncomfortable, they’re uncomfortable. An adult may rationalize or understand an activity or lesson in a way that kids don’t yet the cognitive abilities to comprehend. Pushing a kid beyond what they’re comfortable with is not a teaching tool.
Also, sometimes activities and “lessons” are super, super racist. Sometimes teachers use exceedingly poor judgment. In any of these cases, kids shouldn’t have to grin and bear it.
Shorewood district superintendent, Bryan Davis, gave a
statement, copied in part here:
"We take these allegations extremely serious. Throughout this situation, student safety and well-being have been our top priority. Our school counselor, school psychologist, dean of students, and the SIS (Shorewood Intermediate School) principal have been providing support to the students who were directly involved in the incident.
We are committed to providing an environment of inclusion in our schools. We will continue to assess the situation and ensure that we provide ongoing support to our students as we move forward. If your student has any concerns regarding this situation, please encourage them to contact their school administrators or school counselor."
The teacher’s name has not yet been released. What do you think about this alleged “lesson”?