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Teacher on Leave After Casting Two Black Students as Slaves in Class Play

The fifth-grade teacher’s handling of the play has sparked an investigation by the school district.

A fifth-grade teacher in Connecticut was placed on administrative leave after casting two children of color as slaves in a play, the New York Daily News reports. The controversy began last week, when one of the students told her parents she had been cast as “Enslaved African 2” in a play called “A Triangle of Trade”—a production published by Scholastic in 2003 that was supposed to teach children about Colonial America. Her mother, Dr. Carmen Parker, raised concerns after learning that her biracial 10-year-old daughter was one of two “slaves” being pushed by a “slave owner” character in the play. When Parker called West Woods Elementary School to express her concerns, the production was canceled without explanation or an apology. In a statement, the Hamden, Connecticut school said the teacher's unapproved use of the play in the classroom “raised serious concerns that are currently being investigated” by the school district. Parker told the New Haven Register on Thursday that she wanted the teacher back in the classroom and the principal to be removed, claiming the school's administration was avoiding any responsibility for the incident.