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School gets complaint after slavery re-enactment

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A slavery re-enactment involving students at a Hartford magnet school has led to a human rights complaint against the school district.

Parents of a student at the Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy say their seventh-grader was traumatized and subjected to racial epithets last November on a trip to the Nature's Classroom program in Charlton, Mass., where students participated as slaves in a depiction of the Underground Railroad.

The complaint, first reported by The Hartford Courant Friday, was filed with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, and led to a meeting in August between program officials and the state Department of Education.

Jon Santos, the director of Nature's Classroom, says changes are being made to the activity and he apologizes if anyone used the word in question.