A fourth-grade teacher in a northern New York school district has been placed on administrative leave after being accused of having white students bid on black classmates during a mock slave auction.

The mother of one of the black students tells WWNY the incident happened Tuesday at North Elementary School in the Watertown City School District.

A statement from the school district said the teacher had been placed on leave during a district investigation launched after parents complained she had "exercised poor judgment in teaching a recent lesson."

A fifth-grade teacher at a private school in Westchester County was fired in March after parents complained she held mock "slave auctions ." The Chapel School in Bronxville agreed to hire a diversity officer after the state attorney general's office investigated.