Emzayia and Zyeshauwne Feazell: 14-Year-Old Black Twins Was Asked To Clean Cotton For A Social Studies Assignment, Mother Claims

Emzayia and Zyeshauwne Feazell, 14-year-old twins, have stopped attending classes at Sacagawea Middle School in Spokane, Washington after allegedly being asked to clean cotton.

An eight grade social studies assignment left the twins feeling hurt, angry, and traumatized. The class was in the middle of a unit about industrial economics. As part of a classroom activity, their teacher pulled out a box of raw cotton and told the class they were going to do a “fun” activity to see who could clean the cotton the fastest.

Feazell twins were the only black students in their social studies class. Their classmates made comments about how they would not have picked cotton if they lived during slavery, according to the twins.

The twins mother, Brandi Feazell, revealed that she found out about the incident when her daughters showed up to her job after school to speak about their assignment.

Brandi Feazell revealed that the principal was defending the teachers actions when she called the school.

“Instead of maintaining his job, and defending these children, and making sure that their health and their safety, mentally and emotionally was taken care of, and being their first line of defense; he did not portray any of that. He was more worried about his faculty.”

The Spokane School District said by email that it is investigating what happened. A spokesperson would not elaborate further.