Teacher on leave after giving ‘set your price for a slave’ assignment to students
A Missouri teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave after asking social studies students to put a price on slaves, a school spokesperson told the media.
According to ABC News, a Blades Elementary School teacher doled out an assignment to a group of fifth graders that challenged them to learn about the Colonial marketplace and the exchange of goods during that time, the Mehlville School District told ABC. The assignment lists slaves as one of the traded goods, which caused an uproar from parents and staff.
“Asking a student to participate in a simulated activity that puts a price on a person is not acceptable,” Superintendent Chris Gaines told the station Tuesday. “Racism of any kind, even inadvertently stemming from cultural bias, is wrong and is not who we aspire to be as a school district.”
»RELATED: School apologizes for assignment asking if ‘slavery wasn’t such a bad thing’
A person who posted an image of the assignment earlier this week said the assignment was “wrong on so many levels.”
Local news station KMOV shared the full assignment with its viewers, which also list grain, apples, codfish, oil, milk and wool as exchangeable goods. The district has not identified the teacher, but the school’s spokesperson has confirmed the district placed the educator on a paid administrative leave.
John Bowman, president of the St. Louis Branch of the NAACP, said in a statement the assignment was unacceptable.
“It’s very inhumane, it does not speak to us taking care of each other as human beings," Bowman said.
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Stephanie has been telling stories her whole life. Her interest in the written word started with short stories and journal entries about run-ins with classroom bullies as a child and matured to writing for her high school newspaper over the years. She has written and edited for The Tennessean, Augusta Chronicle and American City & County.
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