A Black history lesson in which cotton was passed around to students has stirred controversy about cultural sensitivity at a Virginia high school.
The lesson at Riverside High School in Leesburg took place earlier this month during a college-level U.S. history class filled with juniors and seniors.
A Loudoun County Public Schools spokesperson told local news outlets that the Dec. 5 lesson involved “a discussion surrounding cotton, the invention of the cotton gin and enslavement. As part of the discussion, the teacher passed around a piece of raw cotton.”
However, the lesson didn’t go over well with some of the students, one of whom sent a complaint to the local NAACP branch.
“They explained that the teacher left the room and got a stalk of cotton from another teacher, and that teacher that she got the cotton from was a teacher of African-American history,” Loudoun County NAACP President Michelle Thomas told WUSA9.
Thomas said the stalk was passed around the class until students in one part of the classroom refused to pass it to a Black student. They placed it on a table and called it “disgusting.” Other students began exchanging jokes about slavery.
“The kids began making jokes about Black people being enslaved, and it was humiliating and deeply embarrassing for the students involved,” Thomas said, adding that one of the Black students “felt awkward.”
Thomas said the lesson was “culturally insensitive” and “of poor taste and judgment.”
“That’s why they reported it,” the NAACP president said.
In a letter Riverdale High Principal Doug Anderson sent parents days after the incident, he stated that “lessons of this nature may cause students to feel any number of emotions” and that “some students in the class may have used the situation as a way to act in an insensitive manner.”
“This is not what we are trying to accomplish in our classrooms, and we will endeavor to do better,” Andersen wrote. “Every individual is valued in Loudoun County Public Schools.”
A district spokesperson said district officials don’t believe the teacher intended to cause harm or humiliation but acknowledged the need to improve the learning environment for its students.
“The lesson was upsetting to some students. This is contrary to what we believe the teacher – and LCPS – strive to accomplish in our classrooms. It is the division’s intention to achieve a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students. That is not what happened here, and we must and will do better,” the district wrote in a statement.
The LCPS spokesperson also confirmed that the teacher is still in the classroom but said that officials will work to ensure cultural sensitivity is upheld in all classes in the future.
“It is the division’s practice to provide guidance when dealing with controversial or sensitive lessons regarding ways that develop critical thinking skills while also demonstrating sensitivity to the emotions often resulting from such topics,” the statement read. “The Division’s Department of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility will work with Teaching & Learning to develop further guidance for instructional staff when lessons could potentially be associated with trauma. In addition, the division is and will be reaching out to our community partners to discuss not only the implications from this lesson but also additional steps that can be taken in the future.”
The school system also said parents are supposed to be notified in advance when their children will be taught lessons involving sensitive topics, but that didn’t happen in this case. The district pledged to make sure staff implement that policy in the future.
Loudoun County Public Schools faced backlash for cultural incompetence in 2019 after it was revealed that students at Madison’s Trust Elementary School in Brambleton were forced to act as runaway slaves in gym class for Black History Month.
