'Favorite cotton picker': Parents furious after Black students receive racist drawings and notes from classmates during Black History month
UPLAND, CALIFORNIA: A sixth grader is accused of giving a fellow Black student a series of racist drawings which has compelled parents of pupils at an Upland elementary school to demand an explanation. The Pepper Tree Elementary School incident has alarmed many people in the Upland Unified School District. One parent removed their child from the school after black students at the Pepper Tree in Southern California received racist drawings.
One young girl was given drawings by her classmates that featured a stick figure being hanged and captions that read "you're my favorite monkey" and "to my favorite cotton picker." Following ongoing harassment, the mother of the girl who received the drawings informed KTLA that she will no longer permit her daughter to attend Pepper Tree Elementary School. According to a statement from the superintendent of Upland Unified School District, the drawings are currently being investigated.
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What are outraged parents saying?
Three children of Maylana and Rome Douglas attend the same school, and they claim that their daughter has also been a target of racism. The worried parents further allege that a group of girls said they would massage and offer back rubs to their daughter because it is Black History Month. Rome Douglas claimed that the girls persuaded his daughter that she was entitled to back rubs because it was her month. And reportedly someone said to her, "Well, maybe only half the month because you’re only half Black."
One black student also received a card that included a stick person holding a sign that read, "No more picking cotton." Happy Black History Month was written on the card's back by the student. Together with a smile, the group promises to be kind during the entire month.
Despite how disturbing the drawings are, parents claim that racism has been present in the district before. About this time last year, a teacher who had made anti-Asian remarks at Lunar New Year festivities at another school in the same district was forced to leave.
Racist drawings that were given to Black students
The child was given disturbing illustrations that include a giant brown monkey on one side of a card with the words "you're my favorite monkey." One of the other cards has a landscape with white cotton pieces floating in the air and the words "to my favorite cotton picker" around it.
"They said that they were going to give her (a drawing) that specifically said, ‘You’re my favorite slave,’ and they were going to show her as a slave hanging from a tree," as per Maylana Douglas, who spoke to KTLA
District officials stated they are investigating the situation. District authorities reported that as soon as they learned about the offensive, racial drawings that some kids had given to a student in their class, an investigation was launched.
The administration refused to answer a question about whether the kid or children who created the drawings will face punishment because of privacy rules.