After letting student wear KKK costume for skit, Missouri high school teacher suspended
A history teacher at a Missouri high school was suspended after letting a student dress in a Ku Klux Klan costume for a “study group presentation,” the Springfield News-Leader reported.
The Poplar Bluff students in the 9th grade history class were divided into groups and asked to make a skit representing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the district said, according to the News-Leader. One of the groups was assigned the 15th amendment. That amendment gave African-Americans the right to vote.
“As part of the presentation, students discussed the adverse historical actions of certain organizations that actively engaged in the suppression of voter rights,” KFVS reported.
In the skit on the 15th amendment, one of the students dressed in the KKK costume, the station reported. That was on Nov. 9.
The Poplar Bluff R-I School District has since said that the student wasn’t acting with “discriminatory intent,” according to KFVS.
The KKK Klansman costume “became public” after a 2017 graduate of Poplar Bluff High School posted a photo of it to Facebook, according to a social media post from the News-Leader.
“This happened in Poplar Bluff Missouri at my daughters High School,” one person posted to Twitter. “A student was allowed to wear a KKK costume! When I contacted (the) school ... they told me that this was part of an Assignment in History class and nothing was meant by it!”
The district completed an internal investigation after the skit and has suspended the teacher, the News-Leader reported. That was on Monday morning.
That same morning, an apology letter from the teacher was read to students, KFVS reported. The letter was obtained by the TV station and published online.
“I want to sincerely apologize for the pain and negative attention that I have brought to our classroom, school, and community,” the letter states . “I made a mistake on Friday during our skit assignment. I let a student wear an inappropriate costume that was unacceptable and hurt many people’s feelings. As the professional in the room, I should have known better. I am sorry.”
The teacher said it was a “lapse in judgment” allowing a student to wear the costume.
“I am so sorry for making this mistake, and I hope that you can all forgive me and we can work through this together,” the teacher wrote in the letter. “I understand that healing and forgiveness take time, and I am absolutely okay with that.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2018 at 12:53 PM.