Underground Railroad simulation leaves former students frightened years later, new reporting finds

Since 1973, the Charlton-based Nature's Classroom Inc. has operated nationwide educational programs for elementary and middle schoolers, featuring a variety of overnight and daylong field trips at its outdoor facilities. Among the hundreds of programs available for teachers to choose from, one in particular has been the subject of intense scrutiny: The Underground Railroad Simulation.

Over the years, many former students have come forward to share traumatic experiences endured during the program, which featured simulations of slave ships, slave auctions and bounty hunts with adults performing in character as slave masters. While the program was ended at the Charlton location in 2014, concerned parents have spoken out about the Underground Railroad Simulation being offered at other Nature's Classroom locations across the country.

Irene Rotondo, a reporter with MassLive who's been covering the story, spoke with GBH's All Things Considered host Arun Rath. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: So, before we get into talking about the Underground Railroad Simulation, tell us a bit more about Nature's Classroom. Who exactly are they and what do they do?

Irene Rotondo: Nature's Classroom is an organization that started in 1973. It began as a nonprofit host site for other programs, such as the YMCA or similar organizations. It developed into a for-profit environmental educational site, and they do currently serve third through eighth grade.

The thing about Nature's Classroom is, when the founder started it, they gave their blessing to use its curriculum — its hundreds of programs — in any state that wishes to have environmental education. So with that, there's no telling how many teachers' classrooms there are across the country — or how many programs — use Nature's Classroom curriculum and go by a different name. It's very difficult to tell.

Rath: It has what seems like laudable aims, and what I guess would be a laudable aim with the Underground Railroad Simulation is that to give young people an idea of what slavery was like. But even just laying this out: you have a situation where these actors, or instructors, will play the role of slave masters, and the kids will play the role of slaves. It sounds like not a great idea, but tell us about what that actually played out for these kids, who describe this as traumatic.

Rotondo: Before I get into that, I do want to just stress: Nature's Classroom is not a historical education site. Its original intent and intent to this day, as I was told by its director, is environmental education. The Underground Railroad program is one of its few historical programs.

The people I spoke with who experienced it told me it was really haunting, horrifying and scary and just frightening for them to experience as young children. I spoke with two women, one was 25 years old and one was 22. They both experienced it around the same time, 2009 or 2010-ish.

So they told me that during the program they were first led into a large cabin at night. It was part of an evening activity they had been told they'd be participating in. The children were all led into a large cabin that was only lit by candles and lanterns, they had said, to simulate them being inside a "slave ship." Once inside the "slave ship," the children were told they were being taken to America. The children were laying on the floor, and as the children laid on the floor, they heard chains being slammed on the ground. Chains were being swung around the room, and the adults were yelling at the children, as transatlantic slave traders would.

Through my reporting, I also saw a lot of TikToks about this and a lot of videos online. There's a lot of different accounts of what happened. It varied according to the Nature's Classroom institute the child went to. Not all the programs had the same intensity, but for the ones that did have the severe intensity, it really stuck with them. Other people recall a racial slur being used during this time, directed at the children by the instructors.

After the children had "arrived in America" on the "slave ship," they were led outside to be auctioned into smaller groups, basically to be broken up, to be led through the forest on the Underground Railroad expedition, which was the whole point of the activity, was to walk through the forest at night, guided by the counselors, and to learn about the history. What the former students told me happened is they were screamed at. Some remember dogs barking and dogs present on the premise. I was told in my interviews with the Nature's Classroom associate director that dogs weren't allowed on the premise at this time, there was no way they were dogs. But I will say, during my visit, there were dog tracks that I had seen on the premise.

So people, the children, remember the dogs barking as they're being led through the woods. They remember other counselors pretending to be bounty hunters and slave owners popping out of the shadows, yelling at them. After that, they told me the activity ends in another cabin and they'd essentially arrived in Canada. They'd escaped the plantation, they'd escaped on the Underground Railroad, and they were now safe in Canada. But they had to then hide in different parts of that building from bounty hunters.

That's pretty much where the activity ended. The whole goal of it, again, was just to teach the children about the Underground Railroad. The intensity that it was brought really, really stuck with a lot of people. And it changed a lot of their perspectives, too, especially for the Black children who had to experience this. I believe the perspectives were different. Race was another important part of this.

Rath: Now, that was something that was flooring in reading your report was that a good number of these kids who were being treated as slaves in the psychodrama were people of color, Black kids themselves.

Rotondo: Yeah, that was something that was really painful for for me to report on when I did hear the story, because it's hard to imagine having one Black child in the room full of white children and having to go through the experience and being told these things and being told to act as a slave, as a Black child. That was tough.

Rath: What's the status of the Underground Railroad Simulation now? It's no longer being done in Massachusetts, right?

Rotondo: I can say it is not being done at the Charlton location in Massachusetts. However, for the rest of the country, I cannot say the same. I know in 2018 there were more allegations that were brought up. And then, through my own reporting, I found listed on a Catholic organization — the Trinity Center's Sound to Sea Environmental Program, offered in North Carolina. They offer an education programs to children and to schools, to groups, listed on its site, that they used a lot of as classroom curricula. And it also says that the Underground Railroad program is being offered for the 2022-2023 year of service. So I know for sure it's being there. They didn't respond when I reached out to comment.

I have also seen it listed on an FFA site in Ohio that also uses Nature's Classroom programing. I have seen it listed on an Alabama Nature's Classroom website. I have at least found for sure at least one, if not three to four, still presently — and that's just the ones that I know of.

Rath: Wow. There is no clean ending to this story.

Rotondo: No, unfortunately, no.