Kentucky teacher suspended while controversial assignment investigated

PULASKI COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - A southern Kentucky middle school teacher has been suspended while a controversial assignment is investigated.

It comes after a student was videotaped in a Ku Klux Klan costume on a school bus.

Pulaski County Superintendent Patrick Richardson told us this stems from an assignment on historical figures and middle school students dressing up as historical figures.

One student was going to dress up as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and the teacher gave the middle school student permission.

Whit Whitaker with the Lexington Fayette NAACP says this is the kind of thing that’s happening far too often all across the United States.

“This is nothing new. This is stuff the country endorses. It has happened in Pittsburgh schools, happened in California, happened in Texas,” said Whitaker.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate army general and the first wizard of the KKK from 1867 to 1869.

“What is your definition of hero or historical figure? Would he have done the same thing if he wanted to come as Charles Manson or Hitler?”

Richardson says he is disappointed and embarrassed by the incident. He says he hopes the school and community realize that this does not represent the character of students and staff at Southern Middle School or the district as a whole.

We have seen a video circulating on social media that we are told wrongly identifies the teacher at the center of this controversy. Superintendent Richardson says the teacher wrongly identified is completely innocent in the matter and needs to be treated as much.

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