DENVER – Jeffco Public Schools said Thursday that leadership at Creighton Middle School had spoken with two students and their families who drew issue with a recent Black History Month lesson one student said made her “nauseous.”
Denver7 reported last Friday that two students in an eighth-grade gifted and talented social studies class wrote a letter to their teacher expressing their concerns about a lesson that focused on slavery, in which some students made jokes they found to be inappropriate. The teacher allegedly let the jokes continue and made other comments the students found to be “tactless,” according to one of the students’ mothers.
The teacher wrote back to the two students to apologize, though one of the students said the teacher only “apologized for how she made us feel and not for her behavior.”
A spokesperson for the school district responded to another request for comment about the lesson and allegations this week.
“Creighton Middle School and the District value the outreach from these students, which has uplifted the need to look more deeply at lesson facilitation, especially covering culturally sensitive topics, and where it may not have kept pace with contemporary thinking,” said Jeffco Public Schools spokesperson Cameron Bell. “School leadership, the two students, and their families have had conversations and have agreed to work together to move forward.”
“The entire Creighton staff community has begun and is committed to this work through professional development, and in collaboration with our student engagement and equity and diversity team, curriculum and instruction, and with restorative practices staff,” Bell added.
The district declined a request by Denver7 to interview the teacher involved or the principal of Creighton Middle School.