Issaquah school officials waver on parents’ ‘sexist and racist’ Civil War reenactment concerns

If parents at a local middle school find a Civil War reenactment involving students racist and sexist, should the school cancel the event? That’s the issue at hand for an Issaquah middle school that, at least temporarily, stopped planning for the annual event.

A listener named Laura told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson about a Civil War simulation at Maywood Middle School where eighth graders are split into two teams (red and blue rather than North and South) as part of a social studies class project. Laura says the teams compete for points while learning about different events from the war, and they can get extra credit by doing creative projects. It ends with a big capture the flag-type game.

“It’s become part of the culture and tradition at Maywood,” she said. “It’s what you do right before you leave Maywood, and they’ve done it for 20 years at the school.”

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Laura said the students were recently assigned a character for the simulation. On Tuesday, however, her daughter came home and said the administration chose to cancel the simulation because two parents had complained the simulation was “racist and sexist.” Laura said a student created a petition on Change.org to try and change the minds of school leaders.

The school responded to the controversy with the following email to parents on Wednesday:

Dear 8th-grade students and families,

We understand that some members of our community are upset about possible changes to implementing an 8th grade Civil War simulation. Instead of cancelling the simulation, we’ve made a decision to postpone for a few days so that we can fully review the simulation and planned activities.

Our goal is to provide historically accurate, culturally sensitive, meaningful and engaging learning activities that are in line with community values. This morning we spoke with some of our 8th grade students to understand their perspectives, and we want to sincerely thank all students and parents who have provided input regarding this issue.

We anticipate sharing a decision regarding the use of the simulation on or before Monday, May 9th. Thank you for your patience in allowing us this time to review the materials and make an informed decision.

The school’s communication director told the Dori Monson Show that the school received “a lot of calls and emails from parents upset that we were canceling it” and that they did “have some communication at the school level telling parents it was canceled, but our intention at the district level was only to postpone it while our teaching and learning department reviewed the activities in the simulation to make sure that it had incorporated changes made back in January addressing cultural sensitivity.”
An announcement was expected later this week or Monday about when the simulation will be held.

Dori was greatly disappointed in the school’s initial reaction.

“It shows an example of how one or two people can complain and be given a lot of equity and credibility by people who are afraid of being politically incorrect,” he said.

Laura agreed.

“It sounds like great teachers and their effort to make learning fun and creative,” she said. “They should be rewarded rather than sent back to the textbooks. It’s a shame.”

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