Kentucky teacher suspended after student dresses in KKK clothing for history project

[Chris]

Kentucky teacher suspended after student dresses in KKK clothing for history project
Allegedly, the student had received permission from the teacher to dress up as Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate Army general and the first grand wizard of the KKK.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

A middle school teacher in Kentucky has been suspended pending an investigation into why a student dressed up in Ku Klux Klan clothing for a history project, according to local media.

The teacher at Southern Middle School reportedly assigned a history project to her class to write and do a presentation of a historical figure. One student posted a TikTok last week in KKK clothing on a school bus. Allegedly, the student had received permission from the teacher to dress up as Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate Army general and the first grand wizard of the KKK.

Patrick Richardson, superintendent of Pulaski County, the Southern Kentucky county where the event occurred, told local press he is disappointed and embarrassed by the incident, which is under investigation.

more................ https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-743286

 

[MapleLeaf]

Dressing for a presentation is not an endorsement. I am growing weary of such babyish thinking.

 

[Andrew Byrum]

Somehow, there are always some, but not all, university educated people who enter the field of education who go brain dead when they move into positions of power. I can say this having taught in public education for 30 years. If it is good and makes sense logically, then it is to be discarded, but if it seems to be lunacy, then it is wholeheartedly embraced as the next best thing since sliced bread. Why not use this as an educational opportunity for students learn that history is neither good nor bad, but what we learn from the history makes society better or worse.

 

[fl2007rn]

JMHO. If I were the teacher I would not let my student dress up in a KKK outfit knowing how if could affect others. It is no different that someone dressing up in a NAZI uniform and what that stood for.

 

[MapleLeaf]

JMHO. If I were the teacher I would not let my student dress up in a KKK outfit knowing how if could affect others. It is no different that someone dressing up in a NAZI uniform and what that stood for.

I strongly, strongly disagree. It's history. It needs to be remembered. I wouldn't let people do it simply for the current politics of the day and trying to keep my kids out of trouble but I would think it a shame and very stupid. I saw some Nazi uniforms being sold at a flea market once. Their uniforms were very smart-looking and it's a valid piece of history. I don't have the money for any sort of artifact but I think it should all be preserved. The Jewish people don't own the market on being oppressed so I don't really care about that, to be honest. There is a big difference between a love of history and trying to preserve it and ENDORSING every little bit of their ideology. There is also the context. This was not a costume party for fun. It was a presentation for educational purposes. Seeing someone in costume could help make the history of what it meant real...that it wasn't just some story in a book. I also want this stuff preserved because these events are being used for specific narratives and as a cudgel to subdue segments of our population. KKK guys in hoods and Nazi soldiers never harassed a single student in those rooms so they could get over it.

And sometimes kids think it's funny to be edgy and are just trying to get a reaction. I'm not going to get upset over every kid who goose-steps their way into a room or spray paints a swatiska on a wall (the vandalism itself is bad enough). I remember the boys in my class drawing them all the time over their notebooks because "it was funny" and there was not a racist bone in their bodies. And it was a trickier symbol to draw than you would think so I think there was the challenge of figuring it out. I remember trying it myself and never really getting it right.

People need to assume innocence in these matters--especially when it comes to kids. And we shouldn't be firing the teachers who let kids be kids either. I am sick of this tyranny of "victims". WW2 and the KKK were long enough ago that we can stop being so squirrely about it. I am far more neutral about historical events. It helps see things for what they were and makes it easier to avoid falling into the same traps...which are often set by our flighty emotions.

 

[twerpv]

I don’t know what the assignment was but as a teacher, I would have allowed them to dress as whoever. However, I would require them to give a detailed history of who and what that character was and did. I would make sure they included the ugliness of the person they decided to represent.
I think history, regardless of how ugly should be taught and learned.