LI Teacher Told Students To 'Write Something Funny' About Slavery

The Freeport School District is investigating after a middle-school teacher allegedly gave her class an assignment to "write something funny" about pictures of slaves.

The teacher, who works at J.W. Dodd Middle School, gave the assignment to students during a lesson on the Reconstruction Era — the period that followed the Civil War.

The assignment came to light on Sept. 20 after Darlene McCurty posted pictures of the worksheets to Facebook. She said her granddaughter, whose friend was a student in the class, was disturbed by the assignment and asked her what could be done.

McCurty said that the teacher told her students to write captions under the pictures of slaves and to make them funny because "she didn't want to be bored."

Freeport Superintendent Dr. Kishore Kuncham said the district is looking into the accusations.

"The emotional and social wellness of our students is always our highest priority and we take any insensitive comments made by staff very seriously," he wrote in a statement. "I have directed that an investigation of these claims be immediately conducted. Since this matter involves a district employee and is a personnel matter, there will be no further comment until a thorough investigation and careful consideration of the facts of this matter are completed."

A school district representative said that the teacher had been administratively reassigned until the investigation was complete.