LACEY, Wash. — The grandparent of a North Thurston Public Schools student reached out to KIRO 7, raising concerns over a classroom activity that allegedly involved picking cotton.
The grandparent, who did not want to be identified, said their granddaughter told her she “was made to pick cotton in some demonstration on how it ‘felt’ to be a slave.”
The grandparent also said, “Under no circumstances do Black children need to be taught what it’s like to be a slave. That was a horrible time in our history, and this display is disgusting.”
KIRO 7 reached out to the school district, and it sent out a statement, which reads:
“North Thurston Public Schools deeply apologizes for the hurt and offense this classroom activity inflicted on our students. It illustrates our need for continued cultural competence training of our staff as part of our ongoing effort to have our teachers model equity for our students and embrace culturally responsive teaching.
“The teacher will apologize Monday directly to the students in the classes where the lesson was taught.
“We can ensure this lesson will not be taught again in this U.S. History course. The district will be working with our social studies teachers to make sure instruction is aligned with the School Board-approved curriculum materials.
“While the intent of the history lesson may have been to illustrate the physical and tedious suffering of slaves before, during and after the Civil War in connection to cotton picking, it was insensitive and harmful to our students.”
This is not the first time a cotton-picking lesson has been introduced inside a western Washington classroom.
In 2014, a mother was outraged over a cotton-picking lesson assigned by a Redmond middle school teacher.
In that lesson, students were each given a cotton plant to see what it was like to pick it.
The mother told KIRO 7 that she believed students were supposed to “see what it was like to be a slave.”
The mother said during that time, “My daughter is African American. And for her to pick cotton when her grandparents were raised on a plantation to pick cotton is not OK. It’s not OK at all.”
When the mother called the school and said her daughter would not be doing the assignment, she said the teacher gave her daughter an “F” on the assignment.
The Lake Washington School District had stated the lesson was about the Industrial Revolution. In a statement, the district wrote, “Specifically, it is about the impact that the invention of the cotton gin had on the Industrial Revolution.”
The Redmond mother met with the teacher and the principal about that lesson.
The district had also stated: “As a district, we value the diversity of our students and families. We expect teachers to provide instruction in ways that are culturally sensitive. It is very important to us to hear from students or families who have experienced a lesson they feel does not meet that ideal so that we can address the issues.”