What are y’alls a thoughts on my sisters HW?🤔 pic.twitter.com/HLp1NJdJtg
— Danny Boy, J.D. (@danholfountain) February 28, 2019
Faculty at a middle school had to apologize for a homework exercise that asked students to imagine that their families were slave owners.
The assignment was given to eighth graders at Sunset Middle School in Brentwood, Tennessee, on Wednesday and covered the topics of immigration, slavery and child labor.
One of the prompts read, “Your family owns slaves. Create a list of expectations for your family’s slaves.”
A student showed the tone-deaf paper to her older brother, Dan Fountain, because she said it made her feel uncomfortable. Fountain then shared it on Twitter, which quickly drew social media outrage.
“I wanted some outside opinions on the assignment to make sure I wasn’t reaching or misguided in my thoughts about the assignment,” Fountain told Yahoo. “Amongst many people, the general feeling of outrage and disgust was very prevalent, and that was across multiple races.”
Parents of the students complained to the school on Thursday. Teachers Susan Hooper and Kim Best, who assigned the paper, responded with an email apology.
“This week, we gave our students an assignment we recognize was inappropriate. We have pulled the assignment, and no grade will be given,” Hooper and Best wrote. “We have and will be apologizing to our students. It was never our intention to hurt any of our students. The assignment was insensitive, and it did not promote Sunset Middle’s goal of an inclusive environment. Please accept our sincere apologies.”
School principal Tim Brown also sent out an email apology to parents.
“I recognize this assignment was inappropriate, and steps are being taken to rectify this situation,” Brown said. “The assignment has been pulled from the 8th grade Social Studies classes. I know that a mistake was made by giving students this assignment.”
The superintendent of Williamson County Schools, Mike Looney, also denounced the assignment and told parents faculty members had received cultural awareness training this year.
“Please know, we are absolutely committed to ensuring all of our students feel welcome, wanted and worthwhile,” Looney wrote.
