CPS mother outraged by history lesson her child says included reenactment of slavery

A Chicago mother says she was blindsided last week when her 9-year-old son came home from school distressed, saying he’d been made to participate in a reenactment of slavery as part of a Black History Month lesson.

Alexis Williams’ son is the only Black student in his third grade class at Portage Park Elementary School on the city’s Northwest Side. Williams’ son told her that his teacher had him play the role of “dictator” during the lesson and instructed him to pull a classmate out of their chair.

Williams’ son also told her that other students were asked to use tape — meant to symbolize chains — to bind a classmate’s hands. According to Williams’ son, the teacher said the students with their hands bound would be shipped off in a cage.

After the role-playing, according to Williams’ son, the teacher put on an educational video about slavery. The teacher, who is white, then told her son that if he felt uncomfortable watching it, he could step out of the classroom.

Chicago Public Schools officials said in a statement that they do not support simulations or reenactments of slavery.

Still, the incident points to long-standing questions about how sensitive topics like slavery should be taught to young children, especially in a school with few Black students. Black students make up less than 15% of the student population at about half of CPS’ 646 schools. That includes Portage Park Elementary, where 4% of students are Black.

Often schools with this demographic makeup also have few Black staff, and incidents in recent years have raised questions about whether these schools are welcoming and safe for Black students.

CPS officials said they did not know about Williams’ concern until WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times reached out to them. District officials are currently reviewing the lesson plan and how it was taught and “will work with all parties to make sure student(s) feel supported, based on reported concerns.”

School district officials said in their statement that the school’s principal reached out to the concerned parent to offer support, and that “the immediate priority is the well-being of the child, including making sure the child does not feel singled out in any way.”

Williams said her son did feel singled out, and came home with a lot of questions that she was not prepared to answer.

“My son is having nightmares,” Williams said, noting her son has dreamed that men are chasing him. “We had to pray before he went to bed because he was just really nervous about going to sleep.”

The family is considering therapy. The whole situation has left her feeling “very frustrated,” Williams said.

Williams said she spoke with her son’s principal this week and that the principal and classroom teacher deny that students participated in a reenactment of slavery. That led to Williams re-questioning her son, who, she says, is insisting that he is telling the truth.

“I believe my son,” she said.

On the day her son came home upset last week, Williams texted her son’s teacher, asking why she and her son’s father were not informed about the slavery lesson in advance.

Williams said the teacher sends out regular newsletters about upcoming lessons, but did not include any information about this lesson on slavery, let alone having the students act out a scenario.

Williams provided WBEZ and the Sun-Times with screenshots of the text messages, and in the exchange she wrote to the teacher that her son “felt uncomfortable” and like “he did something wrong.”

The teacher responded that he’s “truly sorry,” and that making Williams’ son feel bad was not his intention. His teacher also said in the text that her son is “valued” and “that it is very important to me that he feels safe, respected and comfortable being himself at school.”

WBEZ and the Sun-Times reached out to the teacher and principal via email but did not receive a response. CPS officials instructed reporters to send questions through the communications department.

Williams said she’s now had difficult conversations about the history of slavery with her third grader that she didn’t plan to have until he was much older. She also had to make sure her son received accurate information about that period after her son said the teacher used inaccurate terms like “dictator” to describe an enslaver.

Williams said she’s worried that the teacher was “trying to disguise what really happened” during slavery.

In the text exchange, the teacher acknowledged he had not informed parents about that day’s slavery lesson and that going forward he would “make sure to communicate in advance when we are covering content that may be emotionally heavy so families have the opportunity to prepare and have conversations at home.”

Some say slavery reenactments not appropriate at school

Parents have raised concerns about the traumatizing effect slavery reenactments can have on students elsewhere, too. In 2019, New York’s attorney general investigated a teacher at a private school that cast Black students as slaves in a mock “auction” as part of a social studies lesson. The school fired the teacher and agreed to make “significant changes” in the way it approached diversity and inclusion.

There also have been questionable lessons in southwest suburban Plainfield where students acted as enslaved people and bounty hunters, and in south suburban South Holland where students reenacted aspects of the Underground Railroad. Some people, however, praised the South Holland school for taking that approach.

Slavery reenactments are “completely inappropriate” at any grade level, according to Jose Vilson, the executive director of EduColor, an organization that supports and elevates the voices of educators of color.

“At worst, it can often be traumatizing and stigmatizing and frankly, dilute the legacy of slavery,” he said. There are developmentally appropriate ways to teach children of varying ages about slavery, he added, but at 9 years old “it feels really awful to reenact something that traumatized millions and millions of people.”

Vilson said it’s important for students to learn about not just the brutality of slavery, but also about the political and economic realities of the time, so they understand the broader context.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Hard History guide, for example, suggests teaching about slavery using an inquiry-based approach where students research answers to questions like: How did slavery shape my state?

CPS officials wrote in a statement that they expect instruction to be “age-appropriate, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive” and it should not “place students in roles that could cause emotional harm and/or reinforce racial stereotypes.”

“For young students, CPS emphasizes learning about history through storytelling, underscoring primary values like fairness and dignity, and the strength and contributions of Black people, rather than graphic detail or role-play. Instruction should always prioritize student safety, emotional well-being, and inclusion,” officials said in a statement.

‘Something has to change’

Janette Wilson, the national director of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s civil rights group, Operation Push, learned about what happened to Williams’ son when a family member of Williams’ put them in touch.

She said teachers should use curriculum vetted by their school district when they teach sensitive topics, whether it be slavery, the Holocaust or the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

She said this is especially true in today’s climate where the Trump administration and Republican-led state legislatures have pushed schools to limit what they teach about systemic racism.

“It needs to be systemwide so it does not leave any teacher or principal to teach what they feel,” Wilson said. “They have different levels of understanding and their own personal biases.”

CPS does not require teachers to use particular lesson plans. In 2021, district leaders unveiled an optional curriculum for every subject and every grade and touted that it was designed to be culturally responsive.

According to information on CPS’ website, Portage Park Elementary uses this vetted curriculum for its third through fifth grade social studies lessons. But CPS said the lesson on slavery was not a part of the district’s vetted curriculum.

Williams said before this incident, her son had good experiences at the school he’s attended since preschool. She and her son’s father chose Portage Park because it’s their neighborhood school and it seemed like a calm place in a quiet neighborhood. Williams said the school has been attentive to her son’s peanut and banana allergies and often calls to ask if he’s allowed to eat certain foods.

Williams’ son cherishes the theater-focused after-school program where he can pursue his love of singing and dancing and is excelling academically as an honor-roll student.

Williams wants to see the school take some action to avoid other parents going through anything like this in the future. This situation has left her wondering whether the school's broader Black history curriculum is up to snuff.

“I just feel like an apology is not enough for this situation,” Williams said. “What are you choosing to teach these kids? And if it's not the right way, then something has to change.”