It is a good moment to take a breath. A deep breath.
The District 97 elementary school district is reviewing aspects of a lesson taught last week at Percy Julian Middle School. The subject matter was broadly about slavery and more specifically about the invention of the cotton gin. The classroom teacher brought samples of natural cotton into the class to show students — who perhaps had never seen cotton in this form — why Eli Whitney’s invention was so notable.
Here’s where the story of what happened next begins to diverge and is why the district is working to fully understand the details. A statement from the district last week said all students in the classroom “participated and a few students asked to take the bags of cotton home.” The teacher reportedly said that was fine.
In its statement, the district said it was investigating “serious concerns that a racially insensitive activity was used” in a classroom. That is a necessary topic to explore.
A social media wave followed, with the mother of a Black student claiming on Facebook that her child and another Black student were specifically sent home with the cotton by the white teacher.
Hundreds of comments and shares later, after a barrage of angry, sometimes profane, phone calls to the district, we are in the midst of accusations of racism in the district and enough threats and implications of violence from commenters and callers that the district last Wednesday imposed a soft lockdown and cancelled after-school activities.
It is troubling that this situation escalated so quickly based on early information without verification. That adults would respond to the district with vehemence and threats of violence, based on early or unverified information, which put the safety of children at Percy Julian at risk and put the school into any sort of lockdown, is repulsive.
This is not a village where we turn on teachers, demean them, undercut them. That is a path we cannot go down.
We have faith that D97 will sort this out and be transparent in doing so. The Journal will continue reporting responsibly, but it will not be driven by amped-up social media outrage.
Oak Park has to be better than this.
