Homework assignment on slavery offends parents in Marietta

The mother of a fifth-grade student is upset over an assignment on slavery given to students in the Marietta school system. The assignment asked students to act as if they were slaves on a jouey to freedom.

The homework instructed students to give themselves a slave name, asked what plantation they lived at and who they traveled with. It also asked what advice they'd give to other slaves.

Melanie Nelson said that her son, Tyshawn Roscoe, is an honor student at Dunleith Elementary school in Marietta. Nelson was so appalled when she saw her son's homework assignment that she refused to let him tu it in.

"You leaing about it and having to pretend to be one are two different things," said Melanie Nelson.

The mother of four says all her experiences at the school had been good up until now. 

Other parents that FOX 5 talked to said they were also offended.

"I wouldn't have expected my kids to have any homework like this, pretending like they're a slave. In my mind, when you imagine yourself doing something, it kind of sets you up to do it," said Tamika Williams.

Marietta Schools told FOX 5 that the assignment is appropriate and it complies with Georgia's Common Core state curriculum. They said that they will explain the assignment to FOX on Thursday.

Nelson said that she is going to withdraw her students from that school and enroll at another.

This isn't the first time a slavery homework assignment has caused controversy in metro Atlanta.

In January, a teacher at Beaver Ridge Elementary in Gwinnett County resigned after handing out a math assignment involving problems about slavery and beatings.

In March, a parent contacted FOX 5, upset that his 9-year-old son at Clayton County's James Jackson Elementary was also given math problems talking about slaves. The Clayton County school district said that assignment was part of the approved curriculum, so no one was reprimanded.

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