After a fifth-grade teacher at an elite private school in suburban New York conducted a mock slave auction — in which Black students were “sold” to their white classmates — as part of her social studies class, a state investigation determined the wildly misguided reenactment had had a “profoundly negative effect” on all of the children involved.
As a result, the Chapel School, a Lutheran institution that says its mission is to “know, live, and share the love of Christ,” fired the teacher involved and agreed to address issues of racial insensitivity within its walls, which included hiring a chief diversity officer to oversee the initiative.
