Texas School's Political Cartoon Assignment With KKK, Police Officers Results In Outrage

The Wylie Independent School District in Collin County, Texas, is under fire after middle school students received an assignment that compared the police to the Ku Klux Klan and slave owners.

The uproar started when nearly 400 Cooper Junior High social studies students learning about the Bill of Rights were sent political cartoons by teachers that instructed them to use the images to recreate political events, reports NBC 5. One of the cartoons featured a recreation of George Floyd’s death. However, in the depiction, the officer was replaced with KKK members and slave owners.

Furious parents and police unions contacted the school district over the assignment.

“The material that was used in this particular incident was not material that was approved as part of our curriculum,” Ian Halperin, spokesperson for Wylie ISD, told the outlet. “It’s not something that the district has vetted. It was not from a site that was approved, education site, so it was not something that should’ve been in the hands of students.”

The National Fraternal Order of Police sent a letter to the Wylie ISD leaders to express their outrage over the assignment. “I cannot begin to tell you how abhorrent and disturbing this comparison is, but what is more disturbing is that no adult within your school thought better before sending this assignment to children,” the statement read.

The letter went on to criticize how the assignment may affect the relationship the police are trying to build with the community, stating, “Interaction with our youth becomes increasingly difficult when adults who were hired to educate them, engage in outright divisiveness towards us.”

The school district initially planned to give an alternative assignment to students who did not want to complete the assignment involving the political cartoons. The district is now currently in the process of completely removing the assignment online and insisted that it will not have an effect on students’ grades.

Wylie ISD has since issued an apology amid the backlash. “We are sorry for any hurt that may have been caused through a social studies lesson that included political cartoons that reflected negatively on law enforcement. Wylie ISD values our school resource officers and all members of the law enforcement community,” the statement read.