A Texas charter school has apologized after the concerned parent of an eighth-grade Great Hearts Monte Vista student pointed out his issues with an assignment asking for the positive aspects of slavery, reports HuffPost.
“To be clear, there is no debate about slavery,” Aaron Kindel, superintendent of Great Hearts Texas, said in a statement posted on Facebook on April 19. “It is immoral and a crime against humanity.”
San Antiono resident Roberto Livar posted a picture of his son's homework assignment called “The Life of Slaves: A Balanced View,” where students were asked to list positive and negative aspects of slavery. He wrote that he believed the assignment slipped through the cracks because of the school's lack of diversity.
Livar is Mexican-American and said that he felt "pissed" as soon as he saw the homework assignment.
"What the hell is this revisionist history lesson trying to achieve here?" he asked in the Facebook post. "Eighth-grade History class at Great Hearts Monte Vista here in San Antonio, Texas — asking my student to balance the positive and negative aspects of #Slavery in the US??? What positives??? This is unacceptable and gross.There will most definitely be a parent/student/teacher/administrator meeting taking place ASAP!!!"
After outrage brewed, Kindel told HuffPost that only one teacher was responsible for the assignment. Great Hearts has placed the teacher in question on administrative leave, while officials collect facts and audit the book inspiring the assignment.
“We are fully aware that there is a concerted effort by the far-right nationally to reframe slavery as being ‘not that bad’ and trying to revise the civil war as being about ‘states rights’ and not about slavery,” he told HuffPost in a Facebook message. “We were concerned that this assignment fell in line with that ideology and were naturally concerned, as well as other parents.”
The Great Hearts staff invited parents to a meeting Thursday where Livar was praised for raising the issue. However, he said, his son has been subjected to bullying for ruining the school's reputation.
“These issues are not isolated to one school or one book,” Livar said. “These issues are systemic and continue up the chain all the way to the Texas School Board of Education.”
