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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums11th-graders sang "KKK, KKK, let's kill all the blacks,"
Students at Dover High School in New Hampshire were recorded in class singing a KKK-themed jingle sparking a district investigation. Dover School District Superintendent William Harbron told NBC News on Monday that the students were 11th-graders assigned to create a jingle based on the post-Civil War Reconstruction era for a U.S. history class. The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization, was formed in this time period.
Video began to circulate of the presentation Friday in which students sang, "White masks on our heads, blood beneath our feet, laughing till theyre dead -- ha, ha, ha," to the tune of "Jingle Bells." The students did not know they were being recorded, the superintendent said.
"The principal became aware of the situation late Friday and began working with (the) teacher," Harbron told NBC News on Monday. "Right now were dealing the immediate need of communication out and dealing with the emotions surrounding the situation." The district released a letter on Monday stating that it was investigating the incident and that although the song was part of an assignment, "the impact was harmful."
"Administration from Dover High School and the District are working with students and the school community to respond immediately and effectively to this racial insensitivity. I think the most important part is that we are upset and concerned about what happened in that classroom," Harbron said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-new-hampshire-students-singing-kkk-themed-jingle-sparks-district-n943246
tymorial
(3,433 posts)I hope it will be otherwise but I anticipate the parents coming forward and claiming their children are perfect little Angels and there just must be some other explanation.
My entire family are teachers and I hear about this all of the time. Parents defending their children over teachers and administrators... even in situations where guilt is undeniable.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)Wtf.?
Celerity
(42,652 posts)MineralMan
(146,192 posts)It's one of the whitest states in the US.
From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire
cwydro
(51,308 posts)I went to school with blacks, just like they went to school with whites.
I was in one of the two pilot busing programs in the US (1970s) in my hometown of Charlotte, NC. The other program was in Boston.
Guess which city had the worst problems?
Celerity
(42,652 posts)https://www.necn.com/news/new-england/NH-School-Investigating-Video-of-Students-Singing-KKK-Jingle-501807292.html
snip
"I went to the teacher," said Chloe Harris, a student in the class who recorded video of the incident. "I said I'm not really comfortable with these lyrics. I don't know why they need to sing it. I don't know why they need to present it in such an insensitive way."
Harris said she recorded the incident because she wasn't sure anyone would believe what happened.
"Thought if I don't record this, this is going to be the only evidence that I have that this happened," said the 16-year-old, who spoke to NBC10 Boston with permission from her mother.
Harris, who is biracial, says she was stunned by what the two boys came up with for their project.
snip
Response to left-of-center2012 (Original post)
TreasonousBastard This message was self-deleted by its author.
ProfessorGAC
(64,419 posts). . .this might have been a send-up that was a parody of the Klan or something.
But after reading the whole article, i don't see anything that really supports that alternative perspective.
This might just be what it looks like; slimy.
Johnny2X2X
(18,744 posts)This is disgusting. Trumps America.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)One of the two students said he was assigned a project involving "Jingle Bells" and the KKK - that they were supposed to create a song about the KKK for the assignment. The teacher has been suspended.
violetpastille
(1,483 posts)This wasn't a spontaneous expression by the students. It was a class assignment.
Without more information it looks like the teacher is the villain of the piece.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Coventina
(26,853 posts)See my post #18.
Sounds like the teacher was incredibly stupid or was nudging the students to do something horrible.
After a recent incident in my own classroom, and being told I have to tolerate hate speech, stories like this frighten me.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Awful assignment by this teacher.
Merlot
(9,696 posts)Teacher was indeed "nudging" the students to do something horrible. And really, waht purpose is there in any class to create an advertising jingle?
violetpastille
(1,483 posts)But it's probably just lazy teaching.
My daughter is in HS and their "Lord of the Flies" assignment was to invent songs and dances utilizing the book's themes. The kids would critique each other's performances and judge.
Why first of all, after all these years, "The Lord of the Flies" for God's sake?
But mostly why does the teacher want to waste time on this talent show BS in Pre-AP Lang Arts?
Coventina
(26,853 posts)The idea is that students who do something besides writing papers or taking tests learn better.
I buy in to it to a point, but ultimately I do assign a lot of written papers. For me, that's the best judge of how well a student has learned something.
Problem is, I have college students who can't write coherent sentences, much less an entire essay.
Anyway, I actually get dinged on my evals if I don't prove that I have students doing "active learning" of some kind.
This teacher was either so monumentally stupid s/he shouldn't be teaching, or had a sinister end goal in mind.
LisaM
(27,759 posts)I don't think I could have done it.
Bettie
(15,998 posts)write a paper?
Also, inventing songs and dances seems like making an opportunity to mock the kids who aren't talented in singing or dancing.
virgogal
(10,178 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)So much for racism only being a southern thing.
Sickening.
dalton99a
(81,065 posts)violetpastille
(1,483 posts)Racism is in no way only a Southern thing.
raccoon
(31,089 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,890 posts)Is this how these kids are raised?
SAD
oberliner
(58,724 posts)One of the two students who were singing the song said they were specifically given the KKK as the historical entity they were supposed to create a jingle for.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)How about a song saying KKK, go away, we dont allow your kind today.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)Of that I have no doubt.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)I seem to find myself shaking my head daily here. Gah!
oberliner
(58,724 posts)The teacher is entirely to blame here, not the students. The students were taught (correctly) that the KKK were racist. They were given an assignment whereby they were supposed to represent the views of the KKK by changing the lyrics of a Christmas song, which is what they did. That assignment was not appropriate. Even once assigned, the teacher should have checked the lyrics the students had come up with before they were sung in front of the class and explained that they would not be appropriate to sing. One hundred percent the fault of the teacher.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)Students have some agency. Either that, or I would have written a completely different sort of song.
16 and 17-year old high school students are not uniformly morons.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)The students are not to blame here - the teacher is.
The assignment was to "change the lyrics to a Christmas jingle to tell a story about Reconstruction" and they had the KKK.
The mom of the girl who recorded the video said: "I think they were doing the assignment given to them by their teacher."
The principal and superintendent of the school said "they do not believe the students had any malicious intent and were addressing the assignment as given to them."
The teacher is 100 percent responsible for this.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)more appropriate.
I can think of lyrics with no problem.
handmade34
(22,755 posts)would assign such a project oh my this teacher needs to be gone!
Coventina
(26,853 posts)Ninga
(8,266 posts)Aristus
(66,093 posts)Mississippi ain't nothing to emulate!
Coventina
(26,853 posts)As a teacher (college, not high school) I was recently told that I cannot chastise students for hate speech, because it violates students' 1st amendment rights.
Yes, that's right, I cannot, I AM NOT ALLOWED to condemn hate speech in my classroom.
I could see a scenario where I give students an assignment to come up with something to present, and it horrifies me.
What do I do?
I'm not supposed to PER MY SCHOOL'S LAWYERS tell them they have done anything wrong.
I don't know if that was the case here or not, but this story scares me.
Maybe just don't assign anything that's a presentation?
Merlot
(9,696 posts)Instead of condemning something, ask the students to do it themselves?
Coventina
(26,853 posts)I'm the leader of the classroom, I'm the professor, for whatever that means.
It really bothers me that I am not allowed to display any kind of moral leadership in that situation.
Also, how might something like that intimidate other students into NOT speaking out?
It isn't fair to them to have to confront that kind of hostility on their own (to my way of thinking).
I'm just really upset that our society has somehow decided that hate speech is OK again.
Merlot
(9,696 posts)It would seem that hate speech should be in a category of it's own as far as what a teacher is allowed to condem.
There are teachers (like this one) who probably think supporting the kkk is showing moral leadership, so I can also see why the school doesn't want teachers making those choices. It seems this teacher was trying to get their motives supported in an oblique way...dangling bait so to speak.
Coventina
(26,853 posts)*sigh*
I love teaching, but it's so exhausting sometimes.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)These were two students who sang this song that they had come up with in response to the assignment which was to change the lyrics of a Christmas song to represent the views of a person or group during the Reconstruction period - and their group was the KKK.
Awful assignment - complete fail on the part of the teacher.
2naSalit
(86,054 posts)I went to school there from grade 6 until I dropped out of the 9th early, partly due to shit like this. In lieu of black people, they would turn on anyone who wasn't white enough for them, that would be me in many cases. But really, in many parts of the region, any ethnicity without governing power will do.
If anyone ever concluded that because they can vote for liberals and Democrats that racism isn't a thing in New England, I've got about sixty years of history to offer you, and it isn't pretty. That's where I grew up being called the n-word as if it were my name, excluded from social events and every other racial exclusionary practice you can imagine, they were just a tad more thoughtful about it than their cousins in the South. PS, I'm not black, not even partially, but I was treated as though I was so I had the experience through guilt by appearance.
harumph
(1,871 posts)Unfortunately, the students succeeded in representing the extreme racist views of the post reconstruction south.
I'm thinking that some of the students at least were trying to show how insensitive and horrible the
times actually were. If this were a Broadway musical - it might be treated as an example of irony.
The Producers "Springtime for Hitler in Germany..."
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Very well put.
Initech
(99,914 posts)Bettie
(15,998 posts)who comes up with this kind of thing?
And what kind of parent raises a kid who would behave this way?