North Carolina Teacher Resigns After Telling Black Students They Would be ‘Field Slaves’ Without the Constitution

A North Carolina charter school teacher has resigned after she told her Black students that they would still be “field slaves” if it wasn’t for the Constitution.

In September, during class, the teacher asked her Black students to raise their hands. She then made that comment towards those students, according to WITN-TV. The incident happened during an English class on Sept. 17.

The news outlet reports that Winterville Charter Academy Principal Annastasia Ryan issued a memo on Sept. 24. “As soon as we were made aware of each incident, we immediately took action. The result was a teacher resignation and the children involved being disciplined in accordance with our Parent and student handbook.”

Ryan continued, “These situations concern us, too. Our school culture is built on one of acceptance, love, and respect to serve all children and their families. The inner workings of our school are surrounded by intentional effort to eliminate implicit and explicit bias.”

However, the occurrence reminded one parent, Kanisha Tillman, of other racially charged situations that the school has dealt with and how white students are treated differently from Black students. One example was a white student calling a Black student a monkey, per Insider. When the Black student asked for help from a teacher, the teacher said, “‘Oh, it’s OK. We’re all a little bit racist.’” When the Black student called the white student a “cracker,” the teacher threatened to write up the Black student for disciplinary action.

The moment was rehashed on a Facebook page for the school’s parents, as was another in-school incident where a group of Black girls was explaining how the term money is racist and a teacher said, “It’s OK, You’re all my little monkeys.”

The Winterville, North Carolina school teaches 661 kids from kindergarten to eighth grade, and at least half of the student body identifies as Black or African-American.