WAXHAW, N.C. — The Union County School District is apologizing for an elementary school assignment that led to the creation of the fictional, pro-slavery hashtag.
During the assignment at Waxhaw Elementary School, students were asked to roleplay as individuals from the civil war era but given the usage of modern technology. An image post to social media showed a mockup of a Twitter news feed, which among other messages, included a message with the hashtag #SlaveryForLife.
In response to the assignment, the school district issued this statement:
Union County Public Schools is extremely concerned about the fourth-grade activity that took place at Waxhaw Elementary. This type of assignment is unacceptable, and we apologize for offending parents, staff, students and members of our community.
As part of a research project about North Carolinians, the assignment was intended to help students analyze events from the Pre-Colonial period to Reconstruction through the perspective of a key historical figure.
District administrators are taking this matter very seriously and met with the entire Waxhaw Elementary staff today. In addition, the Twitter Wall has been removed.
UCPS is actively developing training sessions for all employees to address diversity, equity and inclusion.
We are committed to working with teachers to discuss best practices for instruction.
In addition, the school district's superintendent Andrew Houlihan took to his Twitter and said:
Today I was made aware of an elementary school assignment about the Civil War that was racially insensitive and not appropriate. I want to be clear: any type of assignment such as this is unacceptable. We are taking this matter very seriously and will ensure this doesn’t happen again. We are actively dev. PD to address diversity, equity and inclusion and rec. that lessons such as these have no place in any @UCPSNC school. We are addressing this matter and sincerely apologize to our Ss, staff, families and community.
Just last month, the school district also responded after a parent complained their high school student was singled out during a civics lesson for expressing a Republican viewpoint.