Outrage, support for school board’s action after ‘Escaping Slavery’ game given at Wilmington school

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — It was just supposed to be a game to teach students about Black History Month. Instead it’s teaching some in the New Hanover County school district a whole new lesson.

Tuesday, parents and neighbors packed the county school board meeting to demand change and openness following a game regarding slavery being given to students. The outrage has prompted workshops on top of already planned racial bias training for school principals. There’s now demands from the public that teachers receive the same training.

“It’s imperative, it should never ever happen again,” said 5th grade teacher Tyler Shumate.

It was the first school board meeting since the district addressed the game.

“Not only was it wrong, it was inappropriate, insensitive and racist,” said Herbert Harris before school board members.

A parent made public the game after she said her child brought it home. It was described as a monopoly-like game called ‘Escaping Slavery’. The StarNews reports it and similar games can be found on TeachersPayTeachers.com, which is readily used for lesson plans.

“I was sickened, saddened and horrified that there were kids in that classroom who experienced that,” said Rebecca Trammel who launched a community conversation group about implicit racial bias in local schools.

“Slavery is not a game it is a horrific part of our past,” said Sonya Patrick before the school board.

“This was noticed and identified and it was a good place to say it’s time for change,” said Pastor Robert Campbell of New Beginning Christian Church who brought a handful of his congregation to the meeting.

School officials say no school staff were punished because of the game, but the board requested an investigation and report on the incident, which is still ongoing. Meanwhile this has also become a launching point of growth for the school district’s equity committee. It is focused on understanding racial biases in schools amongst other issues to provide a fair learning environment for all students.

“They hit the nail on the head and they addressed the problem head on,” said Trammel.

The school board decided to elevate the equity committee to a ‘board’ committee Tuesday night. That now means meetings, members and topics of discussion can be made public on the soon to be updated school website come April 15.

School board staff are working to launch racial bias training for teachers and even take them to a two day training session come mid-May in Raleigh hosted by the Racial Equity Institute.