Family of Black teens outraged by cotton-cleaning lesson at Washington school
A Washington family is outraged after a school administrator suggested two Black teens be separated from their class during a cotton-cleaning lesson, the American Civil Liberties Union said.
Brandi Feazell, the mother of 14-year-old twins Emzayia and Zyeshauwne, said she spoke with a principal assistant at Sacajawea Middle School in Spokane to express concerns about a social studies lesson where students “were directed to clean freshly picked cotton,” according to a news release from the ACLU.
The ACLU says the May 3 lesson “was intended to simulate the experience of enslaved people.”
“The lesson made it seem like enslaved people existed just to pick and clean cotton,” Emzayia said in the release.
In a statement sent to McClatchy News, Spokane Public Schools spokesperson Sandra Jarrard said: “the students were learning about the industrial revolution and the cotton gin was discussed.”
“The teacher kept saying, ‘We don’t need slaves anymore,’” Zyeshauwne said in the release. “That really hurt because it felt like she was saying there was a time when slavery was okay.”
The principal assistant suggested to “segregate” Feazell’s daughters, two of the three Black students in class, during the lesson to “allow them to avoid interacting with the teacher, who is white,” according to the release.
“My daughters already felt singled out during an activity that required them to clean cotton,” Feazell said in the release. “Separating them from the rest of the class would only compound their pain and isolation and do nothing to change the racist culture and policies that led to this inappropriate and harmful lesson in the first place.”
The teens’ family is now demanding the principal assistant be removed and that the district make changes to its policies and curriculum “to assure that no child has to endure what their children experienced,” the ACLU said.
The family also wants to see the district discipline the teacher and other administrators, issue a public apology and implement an anti-racism training program, according to the release.
“We take all complaints very seriously and are committed to investigating them fully,” Jarrard with Spokane Public Schools said. “There are conflicting reports to this incident.”
Once a third-party investigation is completed, the district will announce the outcome, according to Jarrard.
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Family of Black teens outraged by cotton-cleaning lesson at Washington school."