ELLICOTT CITY, Md. – A Howard County high school teacher returned to the classroom Tuesday after a four-day suspension for asking students to write a “fun” slave song as part of a lesson about Frederick Douglass.

Howard County schools superintendent Renee Foose told The Baltimore Sun she suspended the unnamed Mount Hebron High School English teacher for four days after the “inexperienced” educator doled out the “outrageous” assignment earlier this month.

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“It was offensive and out of scope with what we should be teaching,” Foose said, noting that the assignment was not part of the district’s curriculum.

Mount Hebron principal Andrew Cockley told parents in a Dec. 7 email that the assignment focused on “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” that tasked students with creating a slave song “as a means to learn how language can be used to convey feelings and important messages.”

But black community leaders took issue with the teacher’s written instructions to “have fun” with the assignment and “entertain us all,” according to the news site.

The incident followed a recent string of racially charged social media posts by students that’s plagued the school district and others during the 2016-17 school year.

The teacher’s slave song assignment “reflects a culture of insensitivity that is prevalent in our country, not just Howard County,” according to Larry Walker, president of the African American Community Roundtable.

“That’s a huge frustration for those of us who are trying to console the students who are victims of these social media posts because leadership didn’t do the right thing and address this systemically,” he said. “It takes the leadership standing up to the community, saying this is not tolerable.”

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In Cockley’s letter to parents, he wrote that the slave song assignment has been removed and the teacher apologized, WWMT reports.

“The activity was culturally insensitive and caused discomfort for many students,” he wrote. “The teacher has apologized to all students given the assignment and their parents.”

According to The Sun:

In November, an Atholton High School student posted a photo of herself in blackface on social media with a caption that read, “I’m finally a n—er.” In a separate incident last month, a white student from River Hill High School posted a photo of herself holding what appears to be a handgun and the text, “I’m boutta shoot some n—ers.”

Just last week, following another racially insensitive social media post, about 400 students walked out of Oakland Mills High School to express support for a proposed change in the district’s policy that would require administrators to inform students and staff of any “direct or implied threat” made by another students.

“People are angry,” Foose told the Sun’s editorial board. “And it’s playing out in our schools.”

Foose said she’s received “blowback” from both how the district has handled the racially offensive social media posts, as well as the recent slave song incident, with some residents arguing the district should have apologized for the latter.

“Some thought we shouldn’t have apologized; some thought we were too quick to apologize,” she said. “I do not believe you can ever be too quick to apologize.”

“We have to make it clear that any type of hate speech is not tolerated,” Foose said.