Indiana Middle School Receives Backlash For Offensive Black History Month Assignment
A school in Indianapolis, Indiana is under fire after an offensive Black History Month assignment.
According to WISH-TV, Fall Creek Valley Middle School had students draw pictures of Black people picking cotton for a social studies assignment. They were also instructed to draw white people working industrial jobs.
Some of the students refused to participate and one child called their parents to complain.
A parent reportedly met with the principal, but Fall Creek Valley Middle School did not reveal any details of the meeting.
The Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township said in a statement that school “demonstrated poor judgment” and “the issue was not with the curriculum; rather, with the delivery and the inclusion of a prompt at the end to draw an image that depicted economic life in the south versus economic life in the north at the time, during the 1800s.”
On Wednesday, the Greater Indianapolis Branch of the NAACP released a statement regarding the incident, “The Greater Indianapolis Branch of the NAACP is aware of the case of cultural insensitivity that occurred within the Lawrence Township schools. We find the manner in which the instructor presented the subject matter as highly offensive. She failed to consider the numerous significant contributions the African American community made to the fabric of America, even under the most arduous conditions.”
The statement closed with, “We intend to engage in a discussion with the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township to address the matter and become a resource as they evolve into a more culturally sensitive educational environment for the benefit of the students and the Lawrence Township school community.”
