Students at a Texas high school had to watch George Floyd's death and pretend to be jurors in Derek Chauvin's trial for 'triggering' class project
- Students at a Texas high school had to act as jurors in Derek Chauvin's trial for a class project.
- The project has sparked outrage among parents, who wrote a letter complaining to the school.
- The students, aged 14-15 years old, watched the graphic video of George Floyd's death at the police's hands.
Students at a Texas high school were given a class assignment that involved them acting as jurors during the ongoing trial of Derek Chauvin, for which they had to watch the graphic video of George Floyd's death.
A freshman teacher at Cedar Hill High School in Dallas, who has not been named, did not seek parental consent for the assignment and reportedly told students not to discuss what they had witnessed during the trial for at least six weeks, Newsweek reported.
But parents soon got wind of the project, prompting them to write an outraged letter to Cedar Hill Independent School District administrators last week, arguing that the trial could impact their children's mental health. The pupils in the class were aged 14-15 years old.
"It is unfathomable to me that you felt it appropriate to force my child to watch George Floyd's murder on television in your classroom and then move on with his day as if nothing had happened," the letter from the Cedar Hill parents read, according to Newsweek.
"This murder seen by millions around the globe was triggering and traumatizing for adults. Yet, you left students to handle their own emotions and mental health as they left your class, without proper and professional support," the letter continued.
Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, then an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, knelt on his neck for several minutes as Floyd said he couldn't breathe.
A full video of this moment was first played as part of Chauvin's trial by Hennepin County prosecutors last week.
Chauvin, whose trial started Monday, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter for Floyd's death.
Cedar Hill ISD issued a statement on Friday afternoon, saying: "The assignment was not approved by campus or district administrators. The matter has been addressed with the teacher, and the assignment was removed," according to CBS19.
Chauvin's trial is expected to take at least a month.