SCHOLARLY SLANT BY MONIQUE MORSE
Scholarly
Slavery Lesson Gone Too Far?
by Monique Morse
In New York City, a White 7th-grade social
studies teacher caused public outrage when
she made Black students lie on the floor
during a lesson on slavery.
The New York Daily News reported that
Patricia Cummings “pulled the insensitive
stunt in multiple seventh-grade classes as
part of a unit on the infamous Middle
Passage”. Witnesses report during one of
her classes that she put her foot on a
student’ back laying on the floor and
proceeded to ask how the student felt being
a slave.
Following the incident, she was removed
from her position but returned to work two-
days later.
According to the New York Daily News, after
they contacted the city’s Education
Department about what happened, Toya
Holness, a New York City Department of
Education spokesperson, says Cummings
was “reassigned away from students”.
To address the traumatic impact of the
teacher’s actions, the school is now receiving
support from additional counselors and
school-climate specialists. Investigators are
Issue 1
Slant
By Monique
Morse
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Creative Commons CC0. Summary of
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NEWS FOR SCHOLARS IN THIS ISSUE
still exploring this case and the alleged
claims.
Unfortunately, events like this are not
uncommon in the United States. For
example, in Alabama, a white high school
teacher is on administrative leave after using Mother Joins Fight with Daughter
a racial slur towards a student when telling Against Another Student
the students to turn their music down on On January 31st on a Gwinnett County Bus, a
January 19th. mother, her Freshman daughter, and another
student engaged in a fighting incident on a bus
Another example occurred on November resulting in all three being charged.
14th, in Ohio, a middle school teacher told a
student to go back to their country after the
student corrected their pronunciation of
their name. The teacher claims that they
were just trying to “kid with her”. The
teacher was suspended shortly thereafter.
These are just a miniscule amount of the
injustice in America’s school systems.
Hopefully, at some point we can educate
ourselves, so we can make better decisions
to avoid being insensitive to others.
Best School District in America?
National Council for Home Safety and Security
has named the Naperville School District in
Illinois the best school district in America.