Parents of Student Involved in Slavery Reenactment React

*A Connecticut school is under fire from parents who say a field trip that purported to immerse students in the underground railroad experience went way too far.

James and Sandra Baker, parents of a student at Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy, testified at a Hartford Board of Education hearing on Tuesday night–as the Hartford Court reported. The Bakers said that during the “Underground Railroad Reenactment” activity on their then-7th-grader’s class field trip, students were called the “N-word.” They also said that the children had to pretend to be “picking cotton, like a real slave,” hold their heads down and “not make eye contact with the white masters.”

The Bakers said that the reenactment was incredibly traumatizing for the child, who is black. They’ve been fighting the school’s decision to participate in the program ever since, according to Hartford’s WFSB.

The field trip took place at Nature’s Classroom, a…