Teacher Asks Black Students To Pretend To Be Slaves Because They Fit The Role Best

Now wait one cotton-pickin' minute! A sixth grade teacher at Shelburne Middle School in Staunton, Virginia, clearly lost her mind. When a lesson about a Haitian slave revolt and the Louisiana Purchase failed to engage her students, she asked all of the Black students to portray slaves in a skit. Yes, you read that right. She had them picking cotton and coal, ya'll.

According to The News Leader, the teacher in question is Susan Story. She apparently has been overseeing teaching for 28 years and has spent the last 10 of those in Staunton School District. 

School officials were made aware of Story's actions after parent Tamika Derozen got the alarming news from her son. Derozen told ABC News affiliate WHSV that her son was put between a rock and a hard place. "He said, ‘Mom, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to walk out of the class, but I didn’t want to get in trouble.'"

Other parents shared similar accounts like this one offered by Tania Marie Martin in an interview with The News Leader: "My daughter is in this class and she came home very upset the day this happened and talked to me about it," she explained. "She said that the kids were asked if they were Black or mixed with any Black to stand up and be slaves. A White child asked to be a slave as well and he was told 'no' because he was White."

Ok. You know the drill, right? Derozen called the principal. Principal Jennifer Morris apologizes to the parents and reprimands the teacher. All is forgiven. Everybody goes back to class and business as usual. Then, Monday morning rolls around and the students are greeted with Story's lecture on why the Black students were best-suited to play slaves accompanied by an impromptu screening of Alex Haley's Roots. You can't make this up.

The report that Derozen received about Story's remarks went like this: "For those of you that I offended, I apologize. But I want you to understand my reason for calling you up as African-Americans is because you better fit the role as a slave."

Finally, Story was suspended. The school district condemned her behavior. Pleas in a letter from Story's brother-in-law Robert Boylan, a retired attorney, have garnered no sympathy for her from anybody. Parents are demanding public apologies and her removal. "She should apologize, in public, to each and every student in that class," grandparent Joi Estep added.

Story's brand of teaching sounds like an episode of "When Keeping It Real Goes Terribly Wrong." There are so many positive stories to tell about Black people which have nothing to do with slavery. Our history on the planet did not start with us in shackles. Maybe Story will think twice before trying a stunt like that again. After all, she was trying to teach about slave revolt and what you sow, you sho 'nuff will reap.