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Virginia Elementary School Apologizes For Runaway Slave Game
Virginia just KKKan’t get right. After the commonwealth’s Governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mike Herring were both involved in blackface scandals, a racist incident at an elementary school is garnering national attention.
School officials at Madison’s Trust Elementary School in Ashburn, Virginia, are apologizing after third, fourth and fifth graders at the school were asked during P.E. class to play a game where students pretended to be runaway slaves. During the exercise, students went through an obstacle course representing the Underground Railroad and at least one black child, in particular, was made to act like a runaway.
The Loudoun Times-Mirror broke the story and spoke with Loudoun NAACP Chapter President Michelle Thomas, who said she received complaints from parents about the Black History Month incident.
“Loudoun County has a history of miseducating kids, number one, and perpetrating racist things amongst our students. This is not the first one. This is the first one of many. This is the most egregious, and the timing is incredible,” said Thomas said.
She also noted that Attorney General Herring is a product of Loudoun County Public Schools.
“[Herring] graduated from Loudoun Valley, so of course he wouldn’t know what he was doing, going up, dressing as blackface, because blackface is never discussed in the curriculum. When we discuss Jim Crow, it doesn’t come up,” she said. “ … The insensitivity is astronomical. We are in a racism crisis in Virginia, and the school is where it starts.”
The school’s principal David Stewart sent a letter out following the incident and apologized. Stewart is promising that the content will be retaught in a “respectful manner.”
“The lesson was culturally insensitive to our students and families. I extend my sincerest apology to our students and school community,” Stewart said in the letter.
SIGHHHHHH, do these racist school incidents even surprise you anymore???