Students, parents complain after kids use homemade KKK hood in class project

NEWCASTLE, California (KCRA/CNN Newsource) - Some students and parents are upset after a homemade Ku Klux Klan hood was brought into a California school classroom as part of a class project.

An eighth grade student at Newcastle Elementary and Charter School took pictures of the hood, which she says was brought to campus by fellow classmates.

"I just didn't want it to affect any of the other kids at our school," the student said.

She says it was part of a class project about US history.

The school district tells KCRA the three students who brought the hood to school were assigned the Civil War and Reconstruction time period as a topic.

"It just caught me by surprise I guess, because we are bringing in artifacts for it and students are bringing in things," the student said. "It just surprised me that it wasn't a picture."

She says the hood sat on a desk inside her classroom since Wednesday and was visible to the students and their teacher.

A written trigger warning was also on display, stating that the hood was "offensive," and that the students "do not support the KKK or its activities."

The hood was apparently removed Thursday after a small group of other students saw it during a presentation.

"It was kind of unexpected that the teachers didn't really put it away as soon as they saw it," the eighth-grader said. "I feel like they could have handled the situation better."

Her mother says she agrees, calling the situation "unacceptable."

"I think they should have addressed it immediately," she said. "The one item that they brought in was an item that just represented terror, and murder, and just division."

Superintendent Denny Rush says what happened was inappropriate, but he believes it's a learning opportunity for the teacher and the students.

"They had no bad intentions. They've been talked to, their parents have been talked to. They wanted something that would grab peoples' attention and call their attention to the fact that there were bad things happening in our country," said Rush.

However, Rush added that he admits an elementary school was not the right place.

"We also need to be very careful about how we do that on sensitive subjects, and this is an area where, for a few moments, we missed that goal," he said.

While the eighth-grader agrees she doesn't believe harm was intended, she says everyone needs to be more thoughtful:

"You should still put yourself in other peoples' shoes, because someone may think that it's offensive."