Black mom sues over school cotton-picking project

A Black parent filed a civil rights lawsuit last week against the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Board of Education, saying that a cotton field was set up at an elementary school in 2017 that was intended to teach students about the experiences of slaves.Rashunda Pitts said her 14-year-old daughter, who is referred to as “S.W.” in the lawsuit, experienced emotional distress as a result of the project at Laurel Span School that her social justice teacher said was to help students “gain a real-life experience as to what the African American slaves had endured.” The suit also names the school’s then-principal and social justice teacher as defendants. Since the project, Laurel Span School was closed, and a new school — Laurel Cinematic Arts Creative Tech Magnet — was created in its place.Pitts said that in September 2017, she noticed her daughter had become “very quiet and reserved” when she used to …