Teacher Suspended After 'Morality Test' Goes Awry With Incest, Puppy-Killing Questions
After an Ohio parent blew the whistle on a morality test given to a high school class, the Hilliard City School District sent the teacher who gave the test to time out.
Students were given a 36-question test about various ethical situations in which they were asked to choose what actions were OK and which were not.
But the questions, given to a 10th-grade language arts class at Hilliard Bradley High School, crossed a line as far as parent Todd Sandberg was concerned, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Sandberg said the test was graded in a way that it would tell students their “moral foundation” and their political leanings.
“What does the teacher need to know that information for?” he asked. “The questions are so out of line for high school language arts.”
Some questions asked about typical conflicts and dilemmas, but some were more disturbing and involved sex and violence.
One question talked about a scenario in which “A man kills a baby rabbit with a knife” on a live TV show. As with all the questions, students had to grade the comment on a scale from “Not OK” to “OK.”
In another instance, according to Fox News, students were asked to respond to this statement: “Using both a condom and a pill, a brother and a sister decide that they want to sleep with each other — just once, to see what it would be like.”
“Sarah’s dog has four puppies,” another scenario read, according to Fox News. “She can only find a home for two of them, so she kills the other two with a stone to the head.”
Sandberg pointed out the questions on a Facebook site for parents.
“My job was to point it out,” Sandberg said. “It is clearly evident that it’s out there in the public. The public eye is aware of it. I knew it was going to cause a firestorm.”
The teacher was placed on administrative leave while the district sorts out what to do next, WTTE reported.
The school district then issued a public apology, according to WTTE.
“Last night, we were made aware of a classroom activity that should never have taken place,” the district stated. “We absolutely share the outrage of our parents and community.”
The statement called the test “an isolated incident, and an activity of this nature would never be considered acceptable.”
Sandberg said the underlying issue is that parents need to talk with their children about what’s going on in school.
“Hey, parents, be on the lookout,” he said. “I love the district. This is an isolated case.”
According to the Canton Repository, documents released by the district said the teacher who gave the test is named Sarah Gillam and she has taught at the school since 2007.
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