A Long Island high school is facing severe criticism after upset parents learned about a teacher capturing a humiliating photograph of African American students in a recent field to the Zoo.
What We Know:
- Students from Longwood High School took a harmless class field trip to the Bronx Zoo this past November. A claim stated that during the trip, the teacher “deliberately persuaded, tricked and cajoled” the students so that a photo of the four next to the gorilla exhibit could be taken.
- Weeks later, that image appeared in a slide show presented to a zoology class after a photo of a gorilla with the captions “Monkey See” and “Monkey Do” clearly referencing the group of teens.
News 12 Long Island - The students’ parents announced plans to file a $12 million federal lawsuit against the school district alleging civil rights violations. They want the two teachers responsible for the slide show to be suspended immediately, and soon fired.
- In a Wednesday statement, Michael Lonergan, superintendent of the Longwood Central School District, stated “the photo was taken without fully understanding the sensitivity or the hurt it may have caused and reminds us that we must be more aware of the feelings of our multicultural population”.
The school district has yet to fully respond to this outcry and it is unknown if the teachers involved have received punishment. Instead, the district advised that “due to pending litigation” they have no further comment on the matter.
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