Tennessee School Blames Third Grade Student for Nation of Islam Handouts

An elementary school in Tennessee made headlines this week after a paper portraying the Mt. Rushmore presidents as racists went home with a third-grade student. 

School superintendent E.C. Alexander said that the Nation of Islam document was never used in the child’s class. 

Alexander wrote, "The student (without permission) took the sheet from a 'ton' of discarded teacher's material on that table; then, the student took it home and gave it to the parent.”

Now a second parent of a Harold McCormick Elementary School student has said that her child brought home the same paper. 

"Yes, they were handed out and yes the students did look at them and read them," the unidentified parent said. 

The parent said that the school is bullying the child by accusing him of stealing a the Nation of Islam document that was allegedly never meant to be used in class. 

"I don't want this little boy to be looked at as a liar. As of right now that's what all of these adults are making this boy out to be—and that makes me sick to my stomach,” the parent said. 

Harold McCormick Elementary maintain that the paper was not a “handout” for the students. "Now, the thought that we as public educators would deliberately distribute such material is absolutely absurd," Alexander wrote. 

Publication date: October 30, 2014