DOVER, N.H. (WHDH) - Parents voiced their concerns Monday night over a classroom controversy in Dover, New Hampshire.
A video surfaced last week of students singing a song about the KKK to the tune of Jingle Bells.
The teacher said it was part of an assignment.
“It’s like an angry feeling, but then almost like a ‘wow,'” student Miraqle LaPierre said.
The personal stakes were high for many at the packed school board meeting.
The district welcomed comments for the first time after a video surfaced showing 11th grade students singing a Christmas jingle with racist lyrics. The issue caused a lot of pain in this school.
“It was so shocking… mindblowing,” student Erin McManus said.
School officials say it was part of a history assignment in which students were asked to make a Christmas jingle on part of the post-civil war reconstruction.
The students in question were assigned the KKK. Many parents expressed outraged at the teacher, who is now on paid administrative leave.
One parent said: “There are better ways of teaching this topic.”
But many also came to the teachers’ defense, including his own two sons, who say they fear for their dad’s job.
“If you spent even a week as a member of this community, you can see the positive impact my dad has had on everyone around him,” one of the teacher’s sons said. “For my dad, this is his world, a community that helped raise him and a community that he helped raise.”
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