Was a Bronx teacher fired because she was white and she taught a lesson on slavery? That’s what she’s claiming in a blockbuster $1 billion lawsuit against the city of New York and its Department of Education, among others.

According to WABC-TV, Patricia Cummings, a former teacher at William W. Niles School/Middle School 118 in the Bronx, was terminated in October after a demonstrative lesson on the evils of slavery.

The Farmingville, New York, resident had students in her seventh grade class sit close together on the floor to give them a lesson as to how slaves were made to sit together on the ships that brought them over from Africa.

Soon afterwards, claims arose that she had singled out black students for the exercise, making them lie on the floor face down, and that she had put her knee on the back of one of the students, asking him, “How does it feel? See how it feels to be a slave.”

WABC reported in February of last year that Cummings was initially taken out of the classroom for several days and then returned. However, after the New York Daily News called the school and asked about the case, she was reassigned out of the classroom.

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Cummings’ claims the investigation found no proof for the claims and that she was fired because of her race. The school district says she was terminated because of poor judgment.

“They’re on the record for saying the reason I’m being terminated is because of my performance as an educator and the report,” Cummings said.

“My performance as an educator, I’ve been rated effective by the Department of Education. I’m an effective teacher.”

She added that she’s received death threats because of the controversy.

Cumming says that she has “no career at this point” because of the allegations. She initially sued in Suffolk County, the area where she lives, for $120 million.

However, according to the New York Post, she is now planning a $1 billion class-action case “with other teachers claiming similar forms of discrimination.”

Check out the WABC report here:

“Ms. Cummings is a dedicated and competent teacher, who should never have been subjected to these false accusations, which have damaged her career and her reputation,” Thomas Liotti, her lawyer, said, calling it a case of reverse discrimination.

Cummings will sue the city for discrimination, distress and suffering.

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“Anyone who has met me knows I don’t have that bone in my body,” she told WABC. “I was brought up — you treat everybody the way you want to be treated.”

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The city’s Department of Education claims the firing was justified.

“Ms. Cummings was terminated based on a thorough investigation and a review of her performance as an educator. We’ll review the complaint,” the Department of Education said in a statement, according to WABC.

The city’s law department will also review the case when it is served, the station reported.

If some of Cummings’ allegations are true — that the controversy was based off of one complaint and that a black teacher witnessed the lesson and didn’t find it offensive — there’s definitely a case to be made here.

Firings aren’t usually meted out for judgment cases like this. Was Cummings’ teaching example the wisest decision? Probably not, but the school declined to file corporal punishment charges, which seems to indicate the worst of the allegations are unprovable at best.

If the teacher’s account of her record and the investigation are truthful — and we’ll certainly know more as court filings begin to trickle out — the only reason this ended in firing was because of a media furor based off of tentative accounts involving a white teacher and black students.

That’s not sound policy. That’s a railroading.

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