A Utah elementary school has reportedly apologized to parents after encouraging students to pretend to be slaves and slaveholders for a history lesson assignment.
Last week, Mount Mahogany Elementary in Pleasant Grove sent fifth graders home with a permission slip allowing students to participate in a simulation of the Underground Railroad.
According to Salt Lake City's KUTV, a concerned parent reported that her child was "highly recommended" by teachers to participate in the activity, where students would be chosen at random to play the roles of slave owner and slave.
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The reenactment activity was supposed to happen on Monday. However, Mount Mahogany's school principal apologized to parents and canceled the event after parent backlash.
Alpine School District called the classroom slavery simulation "inappropriate" in a statement to KUTV.
"[L]essons using stimulations can be effective when utilized with appropriate topics and conditions. Teaching slavery using a simulation activity is inappropriate," the district wrote.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Mount Mahogany Elementary and Alpine School District for comment.
Slavery simulation assignments have sparked outrage at other schools around the nation. The principal of a Washington, D.C., school apologized in 2020 after Black fifth graders were asked to portray slaves for a Civil War assignment.
Other controversial classroom assignments have crept up across the country. In a controversial lesson at a Utah school last month, sixth-grade students were asked to eat insects as part of an English assignment on climate change. A parent who spoke with Fox News Digital said teachers encouraged children to eat the bugs, claiming it was "good for the environment."
Parents of students at an Oregon high school, meanwhile, were furious last month after students were told to write a short story about a "sexual fantasy."
