RUSSIAVILLE, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana middle school’s planned “Slave Ship” history exercise has been canceled following an outcry by parents upset that the lesson called for students to portray bound, enslaved Africans aboard a vessel returning to the Americas.

The proposed role-playing exercise at Western Middle School in Russiaville would have had students re-enacting the Middle Passage, in which millions of Africans were kidnapped, shipped across the Atlantic in dire conditions and sold into slavery.

The school’s eighth-grade social studies teacher, Kevin Pax, sent a letter to parents detailing the class. But his letter triggered an uproar with worried parents reaching out to the school and posting their concerns on social media.

WISH-TV reports that Pax sent a follow-up email last week canceling the role-playing portion of the lesson.