The South Fayette School District on Wednesday said it suspended a social studies teacher who gave an “inappropriate, offensive and unacceptable” assignment about slavery.
The district said school administrators met with the teacher and reviewed the assignment after a student expressed concerns about it.
“After taking these steps it was determined that the assignment is inappropriate, offensive and unacceptable,” Superintendent Ken Lockette said in a letter to families. “The assignment will no longer be used in any class and the teacher has been suspended.”
The district did not name the teacher or provide further information about the suspension or the assignment.
Several students and parents said the 10th grade assignment, titled “Is the slave trade profitable?”, asked students to imagine themselves as retired captains in the British Navy, looking to join the slave trade business. According to the assignment, students needed to determine “if the trading of Africans can be profitable using either kind of ‘pack,'” Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV reported.
“It was just very uncomfortable because I was the only person of color in my class,” 11th grader Aliyah Emanuel told KDKA.
“I just thought it was a little weird since all the protests and 2020, how it was pretty hectic and overwhelming,” said 10th grader Elijah Hill.
Both high schoolers said they completed the assignment in the same teacher’s World Cultures class.
“It’s just shocking that my son had to sit in class and figure out the price that his ancestors were bought and sold for,” Leigh Hill, Elijah’s mother, told KDKA.
Although the school system had defined and approved curricula, the district said, teachers have some latitude in the resources and materials they choose to use in their lessons.
The assignment will no longer be used for classes, and administrators will begin a process to ensure that any other inappropriate lessons are identified and removed, according to the district.
The district said its director of diversity, equity and inclusion is working with curriculum developers and teachers to ensure all topics are taught with a “culturally responsive lens” in the future.
“We commend the student for speaking up about this assignment and apologize for the harm that this has caused,” Mr. Lockette said. “The voices of our young people are important and heard.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com.
First Published: March 10, 2021, 10:13 p.m.
Updated: March 11, 2021, 11:19 a.m.
