via Pixabay
Rebecca Antinozzi, a former fifth-grade teacher at The Chapel School in Bronxville, New York, believed it was a good idea to hold a mock slave auction for her history class. Yes, you read that right - a mock slave auction.
In an activity that was nothing less than degrading, the teacher pretended to shackle the necks and ankles of her Black students and auction them off to their white classmates, who played wealthy bidders.
Vernex Harding, who is a school administrator at another school, said her son was one of the targeted students: “The children were encouraged to bid on them. My son was humiliated.”
The teacher used the Black students as props in an activity that benefited their white peers, teaching them the worst possible type of lesson about their history as Black people.
The school apologized for the incident and is conducting their own investigation. But that’s not enough.
The State Attorney General, Letitia James, is looking into the matter as well: “The reports of racist ‘lessons’ by a teacher at The Chapel School are deeply troubling. My office is monitoring this matter closely.”
Our children are being educated in schools where many teachers are ignorant, racist, and not properly trained - so we need to be vigilant about properly educating and empowering our children ourselves!