A Teacher Made Students "Bid" On Black Classmates In A Racist Slave Auction

By Lauren Rearick


On two separate occasions, fifth grade students at The Chapel School in Bronxville, New York, were made to participate in a racist reenactment of a slave auction wherein black students were made to be slaves by their teacher and white students were instructed to “bid” on them, an investigation from New York Attorney General Letitia James concluded in a press release published on May 29.


An investigation into the school, which is accredited by National Lutheran Schools and Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, began right after James derived a report of the mock auction. It was discovered that a social statistics teacher at The Chapel School had asked black students in two separate classes to raise their hands and then stand in the hallway. The teacher placed black students in imaginary chains or “shackles” before leading them back inside the classroom; white students were then asked to participate in a “simulated auction” of their classmates.


The instructor had denied holding a racist mock auction, telling PIX11 that she “separated black and white students to drive house a history lesson about slavery.” She was ultimately terminated by the school, nevertheless as James’s findings noted, the impact’s reenactment on the students, particularly the black students, was “profoundly negative.”


Based on the results of the investigation, The Chapel School is required to prepare significant changes to its education and discipline policies; James mentioned complaints connected with the school’s “lack of racial sensitivity” were made before the March incident.


In a statement given to told MTV News, Principal Michael Schultz mentioned that the school, which teaches kindergarten through eighth grade, “accepts responsibility for the findings and are devoted to implementing all items outlined by the Attorney General to aid us deepen our cultural competence.”


He mentioned the school took action “immediately” after the incident, and sought to distribute the students with support from religious and third-party mental health groups. He says the school has also hired someone “to lead anti-discrimination discussions with our community and start planning for a comprehensive review of our curriculum and practices.”


Going forward, the school is to hire a Chief Diversity Officer, approved by the Attorney General; develop a plan to diversify their personnel and “increase minority representation” among educators; dedicate financial aid to “maintain and increase diversity” among students; build a new Code of Conduct that’s to be approved by the Attorney general; construct a Disciple Reform Plan; work with a Diversity Consultant that can better educate students and employees on “racial/ethnic diversity and sensitivity; and design a higher class of system for students and parents to report instances of harassment or discrimination.


While the racist class physical training may seem singular to The Chapel School, Vox points out that several schools are still failing to accurately teach students about the very real horrors of slavery. “Although we teach [students] that slavery happened, we fail to distribute the detail or historical context they require to prepare sense of its origin, developments, demise and legacy,” Hasan Kwame Jeffries, a colleague professor of history at Ohio State University, wrote in a 2018 study published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “And in some cases, we minimize slavery’s significance so much that we render its impact—on people and on the nation—inconsequential.”


The ramifications of slavery can still be felt by Black Residents of the
U.S. Today, and several of these are forced to navigate various inequities that their white counterparts don't. Despite students of color making up most of them of public school attendance, racial disparities in education continue to exist. A 2016 study completed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Department of Education noticed that white students are more commonly placed in gifted or advanced education programs, while black students are more likely to lose out on educational possibilities due to a increase in suspension among students of color. Racial disparity can lead to a lack of good quality education for black students, and in turn, can affect their preparedness level for college.


It’s that inequity that James hopes the Chapel School will directly address; it remains to be seen if other schools across the nation will follow suit. “Every young person – without consideration of race – deserves the chance to attend school free of harassment, bias, and discrimination,” James said. “Lessons designed to separate children on the basis of race have no place in New York classrooms, or in classrooms while in this country.”