LYNNWOOD, WA (KIRO/CNN) – Shawna Gallagher couldn’t believe her fifth-grade son was assigned something that felt so racist.
Her son, Blaine Gallagher, is a student at Meadowdale Elementary. For social studies, he was told to write a journal entry explaining what it would be like to watch Native Americans slaughter colonists.
“I’m Native American and it’s offensive,” she said. “I’ve never seen where they’ve asked a student of Native American descent to write first-person as a colonist.”
The assignment had directions like, “Express your conflicting feelings towards the Indians.” As the only Native American in class, Blaine felt uncomfortable completing the assignment.
“It was upsetting. I didn’t want to read it because it told me about slaughtering my own people,” he explained.
“That was the part that was so beyond unacceptable to me,” Gallagher added.
As it turns out, the curriculum is from the 1970s. Now, Edmonds School District is looking into why Blaine’s teacher decided to use the decades-old assignment.
“Clearly, we are embracing that it was inappropriate and want to take steps to correct that,” school district spokesperson Debbie Joyce Jakala said.
Gallagher said the teacher let her know she was offended by Gallagher bringing her concerns. They’re concerns this Native American family never thought they’d have in 2018.
Even so, they’re relieved this assignment is going away for good.
“We’re teaching them to hate one another and it’s just heartbreaking,” Gallagher stressed.
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