Native Americans Called 'Red Men' On Homework, Parents Blast Racist Assignment

Parents were alarmed to see a homework assignment distributed to students at Stonegate Elementary School in West Sacramento, California, that referred to Native Americans as "red men," which is an outdated racist term.

Third-graders at Stonegate Elementary we sent home this week with a worksheet that featured 20 exercises, KCRA reported. The assignment asked for students to add punctuation to pre-written sentences, one of which described Native Americans and "red men," saying: "The red men's name for corn was maize."

"They're very offensive," Dawn Pedersen, a parent whose son is in the second grade, told KCRA. "I would never refer to a human being as the 'red man' or 'red people.' That's just unthinkable."

Other seemingly racist sentences regarding Native Americans included "Indians belong to the red race" and "Their skin is of a copper color."

Lucy C. Luna, the Washington Unified School District's superintendent, condemned the controversial homework assignment upon learning of it Friday. In doing so, she claimed that the school district "does not condone" the practice of stereotyping.

"Washington Unified does not condone any kind of assignment that demonstrates stereotyping and devaluing of any race and ethnicity of people," Luna told KTXL. "This assignment does not represent our District's recent adoption of our school district being a Safe Haven for all our children. I, myself, am a woman of color and am embarrassed that this assignment would even exist in my school district."

Luna is an Asian-American woman. She said reading such remarks on a homework assignment for school-aged children was a "kick in the gut."

Stonegate Elementary School Principal Ben Kingsbury is expected to send students home with a letter for their parents that will acknowledge and apologize for the racist homework assignment. Kingsbury also spoke with the teacher who assigned the worksheet and claimed she was sorry for her actions, according to KCRA.