MOORESVILLE, NC — Channel 9 viewers reached out to us after seeing a photo circulating on social media that was taken at Mooresville Middle School. It appears to show stereotypes of blacks and whites listed on a classroom whiteboard.
"I mean it looks bad to me," said parent Amanda McClean.
The picture shows words like "criminals" and "lazy" under black and "better than the law" and "snob" under white.
"I mean it brings out bad stereotypes is what it looks like to me," said McClean "Especially what’s going on right now in the world. Everybody’s stereotyping."
The Mooresville Graded School District confirmed that the photo was taken in a 7th grade language arts class, but explained the lesson behind it was a positive one.
"It was based on a spoken word video where they talked about stereotypes," said Tanae McLean with the district.
After watching the video, students were asked to write down the stereotypes of different races mentioned in the video as part of a larger lesson and assignment about what a stereotype is and the negative impact of stereotyping.
"If the case had been a teacher who was writing from her perspective, I would have a huge issue with that,” said Tanae McLean. "If you see the video and the assignment, I think you understand that it is actually a very great way to learn and a nice way for students to open those lines of communication."
The district also said the lesson is in line with the North Carolina course of study.
When asked if it was a lesson parents should’ve been alerted to, the district said it wasn’t considered since it’s been part of the curriculum for a while, but it’s something they could look into doing.
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