Parents in Texas Angered After Students Watch Video George Floyd Death As Assignment
Parents in Cedar Hill, Tex., are angry over a school assignment in which students were asked to watch the video of George Floyd’s death and be juror in Derek Chauvin’s ongoing murder trial over it.
According to Newsweek, numerous parents of students at Cedar Hill High School sent a letter to Cedar Hill Independent School District administrators last week, complaining their children’s mental health may have been negatively impacted by watching the video.
The freshman class teacher instructed students to not tell family about the assignment, however they found out anyway.
"It is unfathomable to me that you felt it appropriate to force my child to watch George Floyd's murder on television in your classroom, and then move on with his day as if nothing had happened," the letter reads, according to WFAA-TV.
It continues: "This murder seen by millions around the globe was triggering and traumatizing for adults. Yet, you left students to handle their own emotions and mental health as they left your class, without proper and professional support.”
Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who is seen in the video kneeling on Floyd’s neck until he loses consciousness on May 25, 2020. He was later pronounced dead at a Minneapolis hospital. Chauvin is standing trial, accused second and third degree murder and manslaughter. The officers who responded with him, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Keung are charged as accessories. They are scheduled to go on trial in August.
The parent who authored the letter are also angry that the video was shown to the students without their consent and that the teacher told the students not to discuss what they witnessed during the trial for at least six weeks.
Cedar Hill High School principal Jason Miller has since responded to the letter and issued a note to parents, reading: "I don't feel that viewing and discussing this case in school is age-appropriate for scholars."
BET has been covering Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. Click here for all the latest developments.
