Teacher investigated after black students 'sold to white classmates in mock slave auction'
A private school teacher is being investigated, accused of holding “racist lessons” involving a mock “slave auction” where white students were urged to bid on their black classmates.
The teacher reportedly acted as the auctioneer in the Bronxville New York school’s Year 5 social studies class exercise where three black “slaves” were auctioned off as part of a US history lesson.
A mother of one of the students “auctioned” off at The Chapel School said her African-American son told her the teacher, Rebecca Antinozzi, placed “imaginary chains on our necks, our wrists and shackles on our ankles”.
“I was in shock,” Vernex Harding told The New York Post on Friday.
The mother said the alleged mock slave auction happened last Tuesday at the private school, where annual tuition costs up to AU$20,000.
“He was humiliated,” Ms Harding said of her child’s involvement.
“My son doesn’t want to see her again and I don’t want to see her again.”
In an email to parents, the principal called the lesson “racially insensitive and hurtful”.
New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed to the Post the teacher was being investigated.
The teacher has since been removed from the classroom, local outlet PIX11 reported.
Antinozzi’s lawyer Jordan Brooks released a statement, saying “the portrayal of the history lesson that has been reported is inaccurate, out of context” and “contains false facts”.
The statement given to the Post also said there was “overwhelming support of Ms Antinozzi from dozens of parents at the school”.
The furore comes after a “racist” hot air balloon was not fly at this year’s Canberra Balloon Spectacular because it had been deemed inappropriate by event organisers.
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