As covered by:The Arkansas Leader
Following a two-and-a-half hour public hearing Tuesday night, the Pulaski County Special School District board declined to fire a Homer Adkins Elementary School teacher accused of telling fourth-graders that blacks are cursed.
The teacher, Phoebe Harris, instead has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the school year and for the 2006-2007 school year. She can be rehired under contract after that pending completion of sensitivity training and written apologies to offended parents.
Harris allegedly told the students at the Jacksonville school that blacks were cursed and descended from the devil, according to an account from Laura Johnson, mother of a black child in that class.
“My son came home from school and asked me if he was cursed,” Johnson told district officials in December.
“I looked at him and said no. Then he asked me are black people cursed? I looked at him again and said no and asked him where did he get that from.
“He said his teacher (Mrs. Harris) told him that black people were cursed. She went on to say that Europeans didn’t like black people and that’s why they were used as slaves...
The teacher, Phoebe Harris, instead has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the school year and for the 2006-2007 school year. She can be rehired under contract after that pending completion of sensitivity training and written apologies to offended parents.
Harris allegedly told the students at the Jacksonville school that blacks were cursed and descended from the devil, according to an account from Laura Johnson, mother of a black child in that class.
“My son came home from school and asked me if he was cursed,” Johnson told district officials in December.
“I looked at him and said no. Then he asked me are black people cursed? I looked at him again and said no and asked him where did he get that from.
“He said his teacher (Mrs. Harris) told him that black people were cursed. She went on to say that Europeans didn’t like black people and that’s why they were used as slaves...
