Teacher denies he made Black students pick seeds from cotton

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A white school teacher in New York accused of telling his class of mostly Black students to pick seeds out of cotton during a history lesson said in a lawsuit that allegations against him are false. Patrick Rausch said in lawsuit filed Friday that he brought a bag of unprocessed cotton into a seventh grade social studies classroom in April to demonstrate how difficult it was to pick cotton seeds out by hand. But he said he made it clear that he was not requiring any students to touch the cotton and remove the seeds.