A South Carolina teacher has been suspended after asking fifth-graders to justify the Ku Klux Klan in a homework assignment.
Students at Oak Pointe Elementary School in Irmo, South Carolina were asked on a homework assignment, "You are a member of the KKK. Why do you think your treatment of African Americans is justified?" and “You are a freedman. Are you satisfied with your new life? Why or why not?”
An uncle of one of the fifth-grade students said the question left his 10-year-old black nephew in tears, according to a Facebook post.
"Imagine a German teacher with the audacity to send a 10 year old Jewish boy home with a homework assignment that would even remotely suggest justifying Nazi actions toward Jewish people," Tremain Cooper posted on Facebook.
After Cooper complained, the school placed the teacher on administrative leave as the school investigates the incident. "We must teach the standard, but we are taking steps to ensure this particular assignment will never be used again in District Five schools," the school district said in a statement.
Cooper also addressed the school’s lack of diverse administration and teachers in the post, calling for more black inclusion. "Oakpoint [sic] is a predominantly white school with mostly white faculty and staff, maybe this will lead to more black inclusion," Cooper wrote on Facebook. "It's only right."