A middle school assignment asking children to play God and choose who gets to live or die—based solely on demographics—has parents demanding an explanation from a northeast Ohio school district this week. The earth is doomed for destruction, the worksheet reads, and only eight people (who are apparently all based in the United States, because ‘Merica) can fit on a spaceship bound for the safety of another planet—which means four must die. The paper then asks the students which eight they’d save, before coming to a group consensus on the final passenger list.
The assignment, called Whom to Leave Behind, asked students to rank the 12 people from "most deserving" (1) to "least deserving" (12). Only eight of the twelve could be saved.
The descriptions of the 12 people are as follows:
- An accountant with a substance abuse problem
- A militant African-American medical student
- A 33-year-old female Native American manager who does not speak English
- The accountant's pregnant wife
- A famous novelist with a physical disability
- A 21-year-old female who is a Muslim international student
- A Hispanic clergyman who is against homosexuality
- A female movie star who was recently the victim of a sexual assault
- A racist, armed police officer who has been accused of using excessive force
- A homosexual male who is a professional athlete
- An Asian, orphaned 12-year-old boy
- A 60-year-old Jewish university administrator
This seems like a perfectly normal task for a seventh-grade math class, right? It’s a great precursor to a year of pre-algebra.
Parents at Roberts Middle School in Cuyahoga Falls report that their children were, understandably, confused by the exercise, and uncomfortable with making such choices, even as a hypothetical. Tia Salchak’s son didn’t know what to do.
"He told me that he didn't feel comfortable putting any answers, like putting any numbers down on it, because he says he felt like he was either being racist or judgmental and I don't raise my kids to judge others.
"They shouldn't have to rank these people. Everything in here is very judgmental and all these stereotypes -- they are just negative stereotypes and I don't think it's appropriate," said Salchak.
Concerned families initially expressed outrage to school officials as early as August 20, according to Cuyahoga Falls city councilman Adam Miller, but received no response.
The unresponsiveness to parents is why the parents, also my constituents, contacted me and I passed the info to a school board member.
Miller posted the worksheet on Facebook, and brought it up in a meeting Wednesday; only then was he able to get a response.
The math teacher, who handed out the controversial assignment, has agreed to remove it from his curriculum, and has apologized.
The teacher claimed the assignment was an ice breaker to stimulate discussion among his students.
District officials are also aware of the matter, and confirm that they are looking into the situation.
Cuyahoga Falls Superintendent Dr. Todd Nichols told FOX 8 News he was also first made aware of it on Thursday morning.
"The matter is under investigation. We are having a conversation at the building level and early next week at the district level about the assignment and where it came from," said Nichols.
Biased school assignments are nothing new, but this one’s a doozy. FOX 8 did some digging to see where the kooky imaginary bigotry exercise might have come from. They found just two instances of the worksheet’s usage—both at colleges.
The University of Houston included the same questionnaire as a part of their Diversity Activities Resource Guide, and Illinois Wesleyan University also published the exact same questionnaire online.
Honestly, whatever the intention may be, the impact of this assignment toes a very strange, and dangerous, line, especially in today’s Trumpian climate of blatant bigotry. Whatever “devil’s advocate” discourse the worksheet is meant to spark feels out of place in a middle school classroom, especially a math class.
Our schools have to do better. In the meantime, it’s vigilant parents like those in Cuyahoga Falls who are the first line of defense of kids learning bigotry at school.
