LOS ANGELES — A Black parent filed a civil rights lawsuit last week against the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Board of Education, saying that a cotton field was set up at an elementary school in 2017 that was intended to teach students about the experiences of slaves.
Rashunda Pitts said her 14-year-old daughter, who is referred to as "S.W." in the lawsuit, experienced emotional distress as a result of the project at Laurel Cinematic Arts Creative Tech Magnet that her social justice teacher said was to help students "gain a real-life experience as to what the African American slaves had endured," according to the lawsuit, which also named the school's then-principal and social justice teacher as defendants.
Pitts said that in September 2017, she noticed her daughter had become "very quiet and reserved" when she used to "vibrantly share her day with her mother," the suit states.
