Teach suspended for wearing Ku Klux Klan uniform to school

Teach suspended for wearing Ku Klux Klan uniform to school

On Monday the Poplar Bluff R-I School District said it had suspended a teacher who oversaw a Friday "study group presentation" in the classroom that involved a student dressing up as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

The district acknowledged that students in a 9th-grade history class were divided into study groups and instructed to make presentations focused on amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

A student assigned to study the 15th Amendment, which guarantees voting rights to Americans regardless of race or color, dressed as a KKK member.

More: Report: Student wore Ku Klux Klan outfit to Poplar Bluff High School for 'study group'

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the KKK dates back to 1865, right at the end of the Civil War. It is a white supremacist/white nationalist group with a history of oppressing, and sometimes killing, African Americans, Jews, Roman Catholics and others.

Monday morning, the Poplar Bluff school district told the News-Leader that the teacher had been suspended following an internal investigation that is now complete.

Also on Monday, the Poplar Bluff district superintendent, Scott Dill, visited the classroom along with Bishop Ron Webb of Poplar Bluff's Mt. Calvary Powerhouse Church.

Webb has been active in the Bridge the Gap movement. Following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, which prompted national outrage, Bridge the Gap has sought to foster racial reconciliation and better ties between law enforcement and communities.

A district communications official said the superintendent and the pastor read a letter of apology from the suspended teacher, discussed why the teacher was not present in class and talked about what took place Friday.

More: Expert: Fewer hate groups in Missouri, but white supremacist prison gangs on the rise

On Friday, Poplar Bluff Superintendent Scott Dill told Cape Girardeau-based KFVS that study groups wore costumes in class to represent historical aspects of the amendments.

Despite the overtly racist costume, the district's Friday statement said that officials did not believe that the student was intending to act in a discriminatory way.

“We, as a school district, are fully cognizant of the negative historical implication, and strong emotional response that this mode of dress may create,” said a statement issued by the district, according to the TV station report.

The school said Friday it was investigating the incident and would take steps to make sure it is "providing age-appropriate, historical context on these critical issues in a socially relevant and culturally responsible manner."

The costume became public in part because Poplar Bluff resident Brianna Anthony, a 2017 graduate of Poplar Bluff High School, shared a Facebook post Friday showing the KKK outfit. She said she had not been in the classroom herself but the image of the outfit came from a Snapchat taken by someone in the room.

The social media posts, Anthony said Friday, rapidly spread around the Poplar Bluff community, prompting outrage among residents.

Anthony said, "I’ve never ever heard of a history teacher who said it was OK to use a KKK costume for a project. Because when people walk into that classroom and see that uniform, that’s automatically a red flag."

Source: news-leader.com