A New York teacher who staged a mock slavery auction of Black students in her fourth-grade classroom will pay $75,000 to settle claims on behalf of a 10-year old boy whose mother said he was emotionally damaged by being forced to participate in the lesson.
The boy’s mother sued the teacher and the Watertown School District for their alleged violations of her son’s civil, due process and equal protection rights. The suit claims her son was subjected to racial discrimination, racial harassment and a racially hostile educational environment because of the 2020 classroom incident.
The principal and the school said they were unaware of what the teacher did until the boy’s mother brought it to their attention. The teacher retired soon thereafter.
In 2021, Judge Gary L. Sharpe in the U.S. District Court for Northern New York dismissed all claims against the school and several of the claims against the teacher. He found the district had not itself committed any intentional, conscience-shocking or oppressive acts against the student nor had it condoned or sanctioned the teacher’s conduct. He ruled that the allegations against the school were insufficient to support valid claims.
Last week the judge signed off on an agreement whereby the teacher will pay $75,000 to settle the remaining claim against her that she violated the state’s equal protection guarantee against discrimination toward individuals based on their race.
According to the original complaint, the teacher selected the plaintiff’s son and another African-American child to stand in front of the class and be “slaves,” while two Caucasian students acted as “masters.” Classmates were encouraged to yell out numbers to indicate how much they would pay for the “slaves.”
The plaintiff’s son said he went along for fear of getting in trouble. After the event, the boy was emotionally distraught, according to the complaint, and he said he was ashamed of being Black and asked if he could change his skin color.
The complaint calls the teacher’s conduct egregious and shocking, especially in light of the students’ young ages. It further charged that the teacher’s method of teaching about slavery was “clearly extreme and disproportionate to any pedagogical purpose and reflects racial malice, callousness, and deliberate indifference” to the rights of the boy.
The teacher sued the school district and its insurers for indemnification and defense but those claims were also dismissed.
In 2020, the state attorney general investigated a similar incident at a Bronxville private school.
Topics Lawsuits
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