Update (12:30 p.m. ET Friday, February 2, 2018): Press Secretary for NYC Department of Education Toya Holness issued the following statement to Blavity: "While the investigation has not been completed, these are deeply disturbing allegations, and the alleged behavior has no place in our schools or in society. She has been reassigned away from students and we're providing the school with additional supports."

A white middle school teacher in the Bronx has been accused of signaling out black students for a lesson on the slave trade. Students allege the teacher made black students get on the floor in front of the class as she put her foot on their backs approximately two weeks ago, the NY Daily News
reports. 

Students and a school staffer reportedly told the Daily News that teacher Patricia Cummings at J.H.S 118 William W. Niles told black students to lie on the floor as she stepped on their backs in order to show them what slavery felt like.

One student told the Daily News that Cummings allegedly measured the length and width of the black students on the floor to demonstrate how little space Africans had in slave ships. The demonstrations using black children's bodies apparently came after Cummings showed a video of slaves being beaten and tortured, the Daily News reported. 

A spokesperson for the New York Department of Education told the Daily News that the "investigation has not been completed" and that the allegations were "deeply disturbing."

A spokesperson for the education department did not immediately respond to Blavity's request for comment.