February 21, 2021 01:05AM
By Joy VanderLek , Record Journal staff
Jocelyn Pannell is an art teacher in the Southington Public School system, working at Hatton and Thalberg elementary schools. Pannell said she loves working with young children and adds that theyâre generally open and honest.
She grew up in Cheshire, the child of a white mother and Black father.
During the time of the Black Lives Matter protests last spring, one second grader asked Pannell if she was âsad about what was happening on TV.â
âI knew what she meant. She recognized that I had dark skin,â Pannell said.
The question caught Pannell off-guard. Skin color never came up in the course of her daily classroom work, no child had ever made a comment or appeared to notice.