Virginia Teacher Condemned for Making Students 'Emotional' by Passing Around Cotton During Lesson on Slavery

A Virginia high school teacher has come under fire for the way she chose to impart a lesson about slavery to her students.

During a lesson that focused on the invention of products such as cotton and gin, and how closely the production of these products was tied to slavery, the Loudoun County teacher passed around a sample of cotton for students to hold.

Many students at Riverside High School in Virginia were upset by the Dec. 5 lesson, relaying the events of the lesson to their parents, reported WTOP News.

Some familiar with the situation clarified that the content of the lesson was not the sole issue people took with it, but the following reaction from both students and the teacher.

"The kids then [began] joking about Black people being enslaved, and it was just humiliating and deeply embarrassing for the kids," Michelle Thomas, a pastor and the president of the county's NAACP chapter, told WUSA9.

The teacher's response to this misbehavior was "inappropriate" and amounted to "no response," Thomas continued.

"Lessons of this nature may cause students to feel any number of emotions," said Principal Doug Andersen in correspondence sent to parents on Friday. "Some students in the class may have used the situation as a way to act in an insensitive manner," he continued.

"This is not what we are trying to accomplish in our classrooms and we will endeavor to do better," Andersen wrote. "Every individual is valued in Loudoun County Public Schools."

While Andersen sent out the letter on Thursday, he "accidentally only sent it to students," meaning parents received it on Friday.

"It was a poor demonstration. If she was going to demonstrate swastikas, she wouldn't bring in a sticker. I'm not bringing in the Klan hood; I'm not bringing in, you know, the robe of the Klansman," Thomas said.

"So the demonstration was of poor taste and judgement, and was culturally insensitive," Thomas continued

The Department of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility and the Division of Teaching and Learning within Loudoun County Public Schools are now planning to collaborate and hence "develop further guidance" to assess how historical lessons and other situations could be linked to trauma.

LCPS acknowledged that parents were not notified before the Dec. 5 lesson, and that they are to be notified before their children enter any lesson with topic material that sensitive.