An unnamed Florida elementary school teacher is suspended and ‘under investigation’ for conducting an experiment/lesson in segregation using their classroom.  As typically the case when media begin reporting on the issue, the school claims no knowledge or approval of anything…. always after the fact, and always after media catches on.

florida schoolMINNEOLA, Fla.A Lake County mom is outraged over what one teacher tried explaining to her students during what she called a “lesson in racism.”

Lychelle Bland wants her daughter to learn black history, but not by being discriminated against.  “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard that a teacher did to teach a child something,” Bland said.

The principal of Minneola Elementary Charter School said that Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a first-grade teacher conducted an unapproved classroom experiment without notifying the school or parents. Kids, ages 7 and 8, were separated by eye color, then discriminated against for several hours.

Eight-year-old Aniyah Rodriguez was in the class. She said students with blue eyes got hugs, candy and toys; students with brown eyes like her got nothing.

“She only wanted the white people that had blue eyes to get hugs. And she said she didn’t want any of our cooties,” Rodriguez said. “Everybody in the class was crying.”

The teacher did send a letter home to parents explaining the lesson the next day, but the school’s principal said that letter also wasn’t approved.

While the teacher declined to talk with WESH 2 News, in the letter, she described it as a “tough lesson” meant to highlight the importance of equality, letting kids “feel what it was like to have been people back about 50 years ago.”

Bland wishes her daughter could have opted out.  (read more with video)

 

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