A Texas elementary school is under fire from parents for segregating students by hair color and showing them graphic images of a 1960s white supremacist terrorist attack.
The lesson, meant to highlight the history of segregation, took place in January at Leon Springs Elementary School in San Antonio, and parents were not notified of the planned exercise ahead of time.
To illustrate segregation, the teacher separated students with dark hair from students with lighter hair. Both groups were then given a game to play, but the lighter-haired group’s game was missing a piece, preventing them from playing. The teacher also required the light-haired group to clean up the classroom.
The district acknowledged in a statement to News 4 San Antonio that the lesson, which included watching part of the Spike Lee film 4 Little Girls, about the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, was “not age-appropriate and will not be used again.”
The parents of a 10-year-old girl who took part in the classroom exercise told the San Antonio-based outlet that their daughter was so frightened by the incident that she was “unable to go to sleep in our own room.”
The parents said the school’s failure to notify them about the exercise ahead of time was unusual and that the school had ensured parental notice for more innocuous classroom events, such as a pajama day with a viewing of The Polar Express.
“They send us notes and newsletters about everything else. Your child is going to see The Polar Express and it’s pajama day on Friday before winter break, and we get no notice that they’re going to do a social experiment on segregation,” the parent said.
Racial segregation in schools has garnered renewed attention in recent months, as schools implementing aspects of critical race theory have resorted to the practice for certain exercises.
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A New York City public school was the subject of a federal civil rights complaint in December after segregating students by race for discussions on “identity and social justice topics.”
