Researching Porn As A High School Assignment
This sounds like the kind of mistake that some first or second year teachers might make:
A high school research assignment on Internet pornography was canceled when parents complained in this Cleveland [Ohio] suburb.Lampert, trying to put the best face on the situation, said it showed parents in the blue-collar district are involved and determined to make their opinions known.
Superintendent Jeff Lampert said Friday the assignment was canceled after several parents complained that it wasn't appropriate for 14- and 15-year-old freshmen at Brooklyn High School.
The assignment asked students to research pornography on the Internet and list eight facts about pornography. Students also were asked to write their personal view of pornography and any experience they had with it.
Lampert said the goal apparently was to elicit the detrimental effects of pornography. Lampert said he thought the assignment was well-intentioned but inappropriate for freshmen and doubted the teacher would face any discipline.
"At this point, I don't see that as an issue," Lampert said. "The whole purpose was to discuss a societal ill."
The teacher, Scott Gioia, teaches health and physical education and has taught at Brooklyn High School about five years, the superintendent said.
Lampert said he started getting calls Wednesday afternoon and met with the principal and Gioia and decided to drop the research project - titled "anti-pornography assignment" on the worksheet - and felt that was the end of it. But the issue took off on Thursday as a talk-radio topic in Cleveland and by Friday the television trucks were parked outside the school.
I hope that the teacher, who must undoubtedly be wishing that he could find some place to hide away, has apologized to the parents for his error in judgement.
If Gioia is indeed a newer teacher, maybe it is best to give him a break. But if he's a veteran, he should have known better.
Related: Number 2 Pencil, Joanne Jacobs
By:EdWonk ~ Permalink:1/13/2006
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