Institutions around the country are celebrating Black History Month in an effort to shed light on the contributions of African Americans throughout history. The celebrations include schools, which see February as a chance to educate children about U.S. history.

A school in Charlotte, North Carolina was recently subject to controversy after Black History Month-themed decorations started circulating on social media. Teachers at West Charlotte High School decorated classroom doors depicting a “white” and “colored” entrance to a Sears department store in 1930. Some changes also included a door representing Motown and a door with the message “from chains to change” accompanied by an image of two hands in chains, according to WCNC.

Although the decorations sparked controversy, some teachers defended it as a way of teaching history to their students. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools pitched in, saying the decorations were inappropriate and that they were immediately taken down.

“The school district is required to provide social studies and history lessons to all our students in an age-appropriate manner,” school district officials said in a statement sent out to WCCB Charlotte. “Teachers at West Charlotte High School decorated doors that displayed inappropriate content. The activity is not aligned to State Standards or with CMS curriculum and approved lesson plans.”

“Once school leadership was made aware of the doors, the displays were immediately removed,” the statement added. “This happened over the course of a few hours in one school day on February 14, 2024.”

It also said that teachers will be retrained as a result of the matter.

“Moving forward, the district’s teachers will be retrained in the specific social studies curriculum practices that can be utilized in lesson plans to teach students,” the statement read.

Black History MOnthBlavity-UBlavity-U-NewsWest Charlotte High School