Mother says teacher ‘exploited' child

MORGANTOWN -- The West Virginia Human Rights Commission is investigating charges that an elementary school teacher used a biracial kindergarten student as a prop to illustrate differences in skin color and ethnic backgrounds during a world cultures class.

Rhonda Bennett, a preschool teacher at Peterson Central Elementary School in Weston, is also accused of telling schoolmates that the child had been adopted -- a fact the family of the 5-year-old girl says she did not yet know.

Joseph Mace, superintendent of Lewis County schools, also has refused to return phone calls and e-mails from The Associated Press but acknowledged the incident to a local television station last week.

The Human Rights Commission supplied a copy of the family's complaint Wednesday after the AP filed a request under the state's Freedom of Information Act.

A copy had been shown to school board members two weeks ago, but it was retrieved from their possession after about five minutes, said board President Paul Derico.

Derico did not identify Bennett, whose name was in the complaint. However, he said the teacher involved once worked for him when he was a principal at a school in Jane Lew.

"This person is an excellent teacher," he said. "She just made a bad choice."

Derico said the school board has taken no action against the teacher because it is waiting for a recommendation from the superintendent.

The complaint, which does not name the girl or her family, says the incident occurred in mid-September, when a teacher's aide removed the girl from her regular classroom.

The child told her mother that evening that she had sat on Bennett's lap while the teacher and other students talked about her skin color.

In a written statement accompanying her complaint forms, the mother said she contacted the school and spoke with several people who confirmed her daughter's account but described the lesson as a good one.

Bennett allegedly told the mother she had taught the lesson before, and that the girl did not seem upset by it. The teacher said the lesson was intended "to show that we all are alike, but we have different skin, eyes, hair, nationalities, etc."

The principal also said the lesson "has been taught in this manner for years" and had his approval, the mother wrote. "He further stated the teacher had brought Chinese children up in front before, and nobody ever had any problems."

The 43-year-old mother, who is white, said race has never been discussed in her home, and she was never asked if her daughter could "be used for show-and-tell."

"It is not the lesson in dispute; it is the manner in which my child was ‘exploited.' This incident has led to questions from my child such as, ‘Why am I different? What is wrong with me? What color am I?' " she wrote.

The family has since explained that the girl was adopted, even though her parents had felt she was not mature enough to understand the concept.

"The issue is not whether the lesson is ‘good' or ‘bad,' but placing a young child in a position they do not understand," the mother wrote. "The system needs to see this from the child's point of view -- not through the eyes of an adult."