Parents were outraged to discover that on a field trip their 12 year-old children were exposed a re-enactment of slavery which included "having the students pretend to be on a slave ship, pretend to pick cotton, pretend the teachers were their slave masters, yelling the n-word at them and chasing them through the woods."
On couple has filed a formal complaint against the Hartford, CT school district after their daughter came home with horror stories from the field trip.
"I ask that you imagine these phrases being yelled at our 12-year-old child and their friends," parent Sandra Baker said at a Hartford School Board meeting. "'Bring those (n-word) to the house over there. (N-word) if you can read, there's a problem. Dumb, dark-skinned (n-word). How dare you look at me?'"
Baker said screaming that at children on a field trip is abuse.
"They intentionally terrorized them and abused them on this field trip," she said.
Learning history is part of what a school gives children, but qs the parents that have become aware of what happened on that field trip start speaking out, it is being asked, did the school go too far? How much do you teach by re-enacting something that can traumatize children just as it traumatized the slaves of that era, and is it appropriate to do without parental permission?
Sandra Baker and her husband James Baker answer that with a hearty no after their daughter told them what happened.
The instructor told me if I were to run, they would whip me until I bled on the floor and then either cut my Achilles so I couldn't run again, or hang me,'" he told the school board.
They pretended to be on a slave ship.
They pretended to pick cotton.
They pretended their instructors were their masters.
The Bakers said the program told kids they didn't have to participate in the Underground Railroad skit, but were only told about the re-enactment 30 minutes before it began.
"The fact that they used the 'n' word. I mean, how dare you say that to my child and call it an educational experience. How dare you say that to any child." Sandra Baker said.
Cross posted at Before It's News