A Lexington, Kentucky high school teacher is under fire for an assignment using the n-word repeatedly.
After receiving a “To Kill a Mockingbird” English assignment last week, Lafayette High School student Kiarah Raglin told her mother there were frequent instances of the n-word on the worksheet. According to WKYT, the assignment had seven statements in which students were to answer, “agree” or “disagree.” And in each statement the n-word was spelled out.
“I felt sorry for her to be in this classroom with a predominantly white classroom with a Caucasian teacher standing over her,” Kiarah’s mother Andrea Raglin says. “These are not words that we use in our home …These are not words that my child is accustomed to.”
Raglin adds that the teacher missed the point. She feels that Kiarah’s teacher should have figured out more inclusive and appropriate ways to discuss the racial issues portrayed in the novel.
WKYT reports that school officials were not aware of the assignment until after a Facebook post about the worksheet went viral.
“We were embarrassed by the assignment because we know many of our students and community members are offended,” Principal Bryne Jacobs says. “I, myself, am offended by the particular assignment as well.”
Jacobs tells reporters that the teacher has apologized, but he did not reveal if the instructor would be reprimanded.
