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Teacher Under Fire For Lesson Where Black Kids Picked Cotton + Wore Shackles 

Cotten
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Modern-day slavery mindsets are still alive.

A white teacher, Patrick Rausch, in Rochester, NY, was placed on leave after having a questionable social studies lesson. As reported on sources, the teacher required Black students to pick cotton.

According to CNN, the wild slavery lesson happened at the Rochester School of the Arts. According to upset parents, the outlet reports, Rausch gave pieces of cotton to all of his seventh-grade students last week and instructed them to pick the seeds out of the cotton as part of an assignment. “Rausch allowed White students in the class to throw their cotton away and forgo the assignment to work on their Chromebooks, Precious Morris, mother of a 13-year-old student,” told CNN. Morris said when her daughter Ja’Nasia Brown, who is Black, attempted to throw her cotton away, Rausch allegedly said she was not allowed to do so, and if she did, she would receive a poor grade on the assignment.

Morris said Rausch’s actions were disrespectful and made a mockery out of slavery.” She continued, “I never would have thought a teacher would do such things. When you send your kid to school, you are sending them to school in the hands of those teachers.” NY Post reports, two other children told their mothers that Rausch “made Black students wear handcuffs and leg shackles earlier in the year — and that when they failed to wriggle out of them, he allegedly said, ‘it’s OK, your ancestors couldn’t, either.”

Rausch, told CNN he had no comment about the allegations or the ongoing school investigation. Rochester School of the Arts said it is investigating the incident and is interviewing students about Rausch’s conduct. In a statement to CNN, Rochester Board of Education President Cynthia Elliott said, “in a District of black and brown students, it is important to be sensitive of the historical framework by which our students are engaging and learning.”