Is racist flier class homework?

A flier advocating the Ku Klux Klan that was found in a black teacher's mailbox might not have come from a white supremacist.

In fact, the same flier has been used as a homework assignment in another class for the past seven years, according to police.

Kendall Jackson, a special education teacher at Granger High School, said he found the flier in his school mailbox about two weeks ago.

The Deseret Morning News obtained a copy of the flier, which has the heading, "Invincible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."

Although the flier has such statements as "The time is at hand to raise all white men and women and show support as one race" and "white people simply will not buy the equality propaganda anymore," the flier appears only to be intended as a recruiting tool.

The bottom of the flier lists an address in Maryland and advertises its membership fees.

The flier does not name Jackson nor threaten physical harm against any African-Americans.

West Valley police Capt. Steve Sandquist said although the majority of people may not agree with what the flier said, it is not illegal.

"It is disturbing," he said. "It disturbs me that people think this way."

Even so, he noted, the flier's content is still protected under First Amendment rights.

Police investigating the incident learned that the flier is the same one used by another teacher at Granger, Sandquist said. That teacher recognized it as exactly the same one passed out to students each year, he said.

"The intent of the letter is to spark thought in these kids," Sandquist said. "They are to draft a letter of response to it (as homework)."

District spokesman Randy Ripplinger said the teacher normally passed out the letter, along with a letter from a civil rights advocate, and had students compare the two writings.

The teacher had not used the flier yet this year, Sandquist said. It was unknown Wednesday if the flier found in the mailbox may have resurfaced from a previous year or if someone got a hold of the flier from the teacher's classroom this year.

District officials said they did not want to speculate on how the letter got into the mailbox.

Jackson is one of three black teachers at Granger but was the only one to receive the flier.

One of the other black teachers reportedly questioned whether there was really racial motivation behind the flier that Jackson discovered since none of the other African-American teachers received one, according to a West Valley police report.

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com