PAPILLION, Nebraska -- Some parents at a Papillion-La Vista elementary school are concerned with a book that was being read to young students depicting a white police officer shooting a Black man.
The book being read to students at G. Stanley Hall Elementary School is titled 'Something Happened in Our Town,' and seeks to educate children on identifying racial injustice, although some parents were troubled by the content.
The district has since apologized and the school board held a public meeting Monday to hear comments from the Papillion-La Vista Education Association and the district's Superintendent Andrew Rikli, among others.
One district parent, who's the wife of a Sarpy County police officer, told KFAB news partner WOWT-TV 6 how the book's content affected her emotionally.
"It's hard to put into words how much it affected me. I was literally shaking and angry," said Annie Smith.
She comments on dialogue in the book between characters saying, "The cops shot him because he was Black," and "Cops stick up for each other, and they don't like Black men."
The districts' Director of Communications said the book did not go through a district-wide process that would have reviewed and approved it's content before being shown as a part of the curriculum.
The Papillion-La Vista Community Schools teachers' union says teachers did not follow the vetting process, but says that no district policy was violated.
In a statement read during the meeting, the PLEA says it wasn't a teacher's mistake to read the book, but rather the district's mistake for not following policies that outline how to deal with challenged instruction materials.