Teacher sues NYC schools for reverse racism - slavery lesson

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A white Bronx social studies teacher facing termination for a controversial lesson on slavery says she is the victim of reverse-racism — and has filed a lawsuit, which her lawyer says could be worth $1 billion.

The notorious teacher’s attorney even says white teachers who work in the Bronx deserve combat pay.

The Daily News exclusively reported in February that Middle School 118 teacher Patricia Cummings singled out black students and told them to lie on the floor for a lesson on U.S. slavery — and then stepped on their backs to show them what it felt like, according to several students and one staffer.

The story sparked protests and reactions from an array of elected officials – but Cummings says in a Notice of Claim filed in anticipation of a lawsuit against “the city, parents, students and the media” that the account of the lesson is all wrong. She says she was the victim of reverse discrimination, defamation, negligence and other claims worth the eye-popping sum.

Her Notice of Claim — which says she’s owed $120 million in damages — even states that the lawsuit could become a class action reverse racism suit worth upwards of $1 billion.

In Cummings’ version of the lesson on Jan. 9, she took advantage of a “teachable moment” after showing a five-minute clip from the movie “Freedom.”
She says she asked four student volunteers to sit close together to show the “cramped conditions” aboard a slavery ship crossing the Middle Passage.
Bu she denied that any child laid on the floor at any time during the demonstration and denied making any physical contact with any student.

I would have give consideration that it was an overdone tone deaf attempt to have the students feel the pain of being a slave and singled out for slavery based on their race if not for the money she is seeking and wording used in the suit. Now my thinking is the lesson was a deliberate provocation to gain money and make a political point.