Upstate NY school apologizes for falsely teaching slaves came to US by choice Updated 1:07 PM; An elementary school in Upstate New York is apologizing after a lesson falsely taught students that slaves came to the U.S. by choice. WROC reports Pittsford Central School District Superintendent of Schools Michael Pero issued a statement Tuesday after a a parent complained when a fourth grade class at Jefferson Road Elementary School in Pittsford, N.Y., used a worksheet on slavery during Colonial times. The paper asks four questions, including “Why did slaves come to America?” with a fill-in-the-blank answer: “As an exchange for the trip to America, African Americans agreed to work for colonists for _____ years, but then were kept as slaves.” It also asks what kind of jobs slaves worked, and suggested churning butter was one of them.