A Baltimore, Maryland, high school teacher who was placed on administrative leave for asking students to create a song about slavery as a class assignment was back in the classroom on Tuesday, Dec. 13.
The assignment outraged parents, forcing Howard County Public Schools officials to respond. However, after an investigation, officials chose not to take disciplinary action and the Mount Hebron High School 11th-grade instructor was allowed to return to class.
“My insensitivity barometer hit 10,” former school board member Larry Walker says. “[But] I think this was just a teacher who had a blind spot and from my investigation, was well-intentioned in the lesson.”
The Baltimore Sun reported that Principal Andrew Cockley released an email Dec. 7 telling parents that the assignment was accompanying a lesson on “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.”
In that email, he noted that the assignment requiring students to make a slave song “as a means to learn how language can be used effectively to convey feelings and important messages” was insensitive in retrospect.
According to CBS Baltimore and The Baltimore Sun, the Howard County Public Schools superintendent said the teacher was inexperienced and the assignment was not appropriate for the classroom.
However, parents were still outraged, because they believe the teacher made light of slavery in America.
This incident was one of a few racialized events this year. During the week of Dec. 5, students at Oakland Mills High School walked out over racism. In February, a Mount Hebron student released a rant commenting on police brutality that eventually went viral.
Howard County Public Schools Communications Director John White has promised parents that the assignment will be removed from the syllabus. “It’s never acceptable to offend students or adults, and we just want to make sure that doesn’t happen, even by accident,” White said.
Cockley has invited parents to the attend next the PTSA meeting to discuss this issue and others pertaining to race relations.
