MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. AP – The father of a black student has sued a Detroit-area school district claiming that his daughter was racially harassed by a fifth-grade teacher’s reading aloud from a book about slavery.

The suit claims Jala Petree’s teacher at Margaret Black Elementary School in Sterling Heights read excerpts from Julius Lester’s “From Slave Ship to Freedom Road” that contain racial epithets and racist characterizations, The Macomb Daily reported.