A history teacher at Kahla Middle School in Harris County, Texas, is under investigation after being accused of teaching a racist lesson plan about slavery and the Civil War that left an 8th grader, the only Black student in the class, hurt and embarrassed, Click 2 Houston reports.
The child’s mother, Tori Ards, said she received a phone call from her daughter last Thursday, claiming the teacher told the class that the Confederate flag had “nothing to do with slavery” and “history got it wrong.” Ards then reported the incident to the assistant principal, who allegedly apologized and said the school would look into it. But then, ABC 13 reports
another incident occurred the following week.The teacher allegedly used the child as an example of fugitive enslavement. Ards’ daughter was brought to the front of the class and said, “I could snatch her and take her to the South and sell her during slavery!
Community leaders, including Quanell X with New Black Panther Nation, Candice Matthews with the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, and Sledge Leonidas with the Houston Caribbean Professionals Association, demand the teacher be let
go. “This woman is crazy as hell!” Quanell X said. “We have teachers, who are racists and bigots in the classrooms, in charge of the responsibility of shaping and developing young minds and want to rewrite history to desensitize slavery, human bondage, lynching, and deprivation of Black people in America and here in the south.”The teacher in question has since been put on leave. School principal, Joshua Carroll, released a statement saying the school is “thoroughly investigating these allegations, and the staff member will not be on campus prior to the outcome of the investigation.” Ards says regarding her daughter, the damage is already done. “It’s affecting my daughter tremendously. And, of course, consequently affecting me,” she said.
“It’s just a very emotionally-charged situation.”