A Kentucky middle school teacher has been suspended pending investigation after allowing a student to dress as the Ku Klux Klan’s first Grand Wizard for an extra credit assignment, reports the NY Post.
The teacher, who reportedly works at Southern Middle School in Kentucky, approved an eighth-graders request to portray Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate soldier, and the KKK’s first Grand Wizard. The request included dressing up in a full Klansman hood and robe, according to LEX 18.
A video of the student wearing the disturbing gown, in a school bus, was posted online, and quickly made its rounds. Parents are now asking for the teacher to be fired.
“That teacher should be ashamed of herself,”
Jane Leclercq, a grandmother of one of the middle school students, told the local outlet.
“Why would a teacher actually approve something like that? I don’t understand, I’m outraged, it’s ridiculous.”
Pulaski County Superintendent Patrick Richardson confirmed that the district has suspended the teacher following several complaints.
“I am extremely disappointed and embarrassed by this incident. I am deeply apologetic of this situation, and I am taking immediate steps to address this matter,”
Richardson said in a statement.
However, one of the Southern Middle School students, who shared the TikTok video of the outfit on the bus, defended the teacher and student.
“He came in on Friday morning trying to wear it in school, so she took it from him and told him he could wear it during the assignment and she would give it back to him at the end of the day,”
the child explained.
“There’s no reason to be offended by it,”
the classmate said regarding the costume.
“You can’t be mad over a school assignment that teaches history, you have to learn history to make sure you don’t redo it.”
#Clique, what are your thoughts?