Wisconsin Teachers Under Fire Over Lesson Asking Students How to Punish Slaves [VIDEO]

*Teachers at a Wisconsin middle school are under fire after asking students how they would punish slaves. 

The unapproved lesson about slavery upset the parents of sixth-graders at Patrick Marsh Middle School in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. So much so that several teachers have been placed on administrative leave over the assignment about ancient Mesopotamia and the Hammurabi’s Code of law in the ancient region. 

“A slave stands before you. This slave has disrespected his master by telling him ‘You are not my master!’ How will you punish this slave?'” the assignment read, according to a parent who shared a photo on her Facebook page.

The punishment? “According to Hammurabi’s Code: put to death,” the assignment read.

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6th graders at Patrick Marsh Middle School were given an assignment that asked how they would punish a slave if they were the master and the slave “disrespected” them.

I asked the student involved in this story if he was OK. This was his response: pic.twitter.com/txK7IoSwUd

— Jamie Perez (@JamiePerezTV) February 1, 2021

Sun Prairie Area School District pumped the brakes on the lesson and apologized in a letter sent to all families in the district on February 1.

“We are writing today to apologize for a grave error in judgment that occurred during sixth-grade social studies instruction at Patrick Marsh Middle School,” the district wrote in the letter. “A small group of our teachers developed and used an activity that was neither racially conscious nor aligned to our district mission, vision, values, curriculum, or district equity statement.”

The district said it is investigating the incident. 

“In our preliminary findings, we have determined the lesson was not a part of our district curriculum and therefore, no student should participate in or complete the assignment,” the letter read. “The staff issued a direct apology to the students in the class and their families.”

The school also explained the intent of the lesson.

“The purpose of the activity was to help students understand how order was kept in the early civilization, how the laws that were developed, and how unjust they were,” the letter read. “One of the scenarios posed was directly related to the treatment of slaves in Mesopotamia; this was upsetting to students and parents. Above all, this assignment hurt our African American community.”

The school district said it will have its social studies curriculum review committee examine the department’s teaching practices “with the lens of racial trauma and curriculum violence,” it said.

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