School Facing Criticism After Trying To Teach Children About Segregation Using Hair Colour

A school in the US has been criticised after it separated children based on hair colour to teach a lesson about segregation.

Fifth-grade students at Leon Springs Elementary School in San Antonio were split into two groups, based on whether they had light or dark hair.

The dark-haired students were then treated as privileged and given preferential treatment with the tasks they were set.

In one such task, the light-hearted pupils were given a puzzle with missing pieces, before being made to clear up after the dark-haired students.

Parent Brandi Lininger said her 10-year-old daughter was hurt by the experiment, which took place in January.

Alamy

According to News 4 San Antonio, she said: "All of the dark-haired kids, the brown and black-haired kids, were treated as the privileged ones and the blonde-haired and the redhead kids were the ones treated not so nicely.

"She was hurt, her friends, and she named to the principal and to district officials, names of her friends that were crying."

The students were also shown the Spike Lee film 4 Little Girls, which tells the story of four Black children murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.

It features autopsy photos which teachers said they fast-forwarded, but Brandi's husband Mike said their daughter was definitely exposed to it.

He said: "The things that she said that she skipped over, my daughter was able to describe to us to a 'T'.

"So that night our daughter was unable to go to sleep in our own room, she was scared."

Brandi added: "They send us notes and newsletters about everything else.

"'Your child is going to see The Polar Express and it's pyjama day on Friday before winter break', and we get no notice that they're going to do a social experiment on segregation."

News 4 San Antonio

Northside Independent School District (ISD) said it did receive positive feedback about the lesson but admitted some of the teaching wasn't 'age appropriate'.

In a statement, the district said: "The activity and video in question were part of a larger fifth-grade project-based lesson around the inequity of segregation.

"While the campus did receive positive feedback from several parents, the district and campus administration recognise the parents' concerns and agree that the activity and video are not age-appropriate and will not be used again."

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Topics: US News, Education

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey