Posted on 05/15/2006 6:01:16 AM PDT by 300magnum
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - A high school teacher has apologized for asking students to write about who they would kill and how they would do it, and officials said he will likely keep his job.
Michael Maxwell, who teaches industrial technology at Central High School, said his request that students in his beginning drafting class describe how they would carry out a murder was merely a writing prompt. It was not clear why he asked the drafting class to write fiction.
"I made a horrible mistake that I regret," Maxwell said. "I want to apologize to my students, my colleagues and to the community."
The April 21 writing request, which Maxwell said was not a formal assignment, came to the attention of administrators when a parent of one of the students filed a complaint with Principal Barton Albright.
Albright expressed regret and apologized for Maxwell's "lapse of judgment."
"He's an exemplary person ... this is very out of character," the principal said.
St. Joseph School District spokesman Steve Huff declined to discuss possible disciplinary measures because the matter is considered a personnel issue. But he said the incident probably isn't serious enough to cost Maxwell his job.
About 25 to 30 students from ninth through 12th grades were in the class, Albright said.
At least he wasn't having sex with any of his students.
This is 2006...didn't he know that it should be "Who they would have sex with and how they would do it".
Exaactly my thought. This is my husband's home town, so I think I will check and see what his relatives have to say.
I wonder if the 25 to 30 students will now be expelled. /sarc
..that we know of
Doogle
Apparently zero tolerance only goes one way.
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Okay, it's 1967, and I'm sitting in class in high school and my teacher instructs the class to write an essay about who we would want to kill and why. |
I'm now picturing that teacher being taken away in handcuffs by the cops about a half hour later, and never setting foot in a classroom again.
Maybe he had darker motives in mind.
If he would just have made the assignment concerning Bush,
I am sure the school administration would have defended his acedemic freedom.
The student who got the "A" was the one whose story read: "Murder my Drafting Teacher by blabbing about the assignment to the AP."
Your graphics are always great! Haha
In my HS, one of the drafting teachers was fired for taking a side job at the local strip club.
At his hearing, his excuse was "I didn't look at anything, I only worked the lights."
The problem with assigning that essay is that if you ask a high-school class whom they'd kill, the teacher's almost inevitably going to be one of the answers.
My first thought was that he was planning on murdering a close relative and would use the best idea from his students--too much CSI and Court TV.
An exemplary person. We need more of those on probation.
Considering how carpenters feel about architects, I could understand this being a legitimate assignment in Carpentry Class.
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