Who would you save: The "38-year-old retired prostitute?" The attorney and his alcoholic wife who refuse to be separated? The 50-year-old musician who used to be addicted to cocaine? A "drifter with no apparent skills?"
That's what a Long Island middle school health teacher had her students do for a homework assignment — and parents were so outraged over the controversial homework that the teacher who assigned it has been removed from the classroom.
The assignment, given on Monday, the anniversary of 9/11, posed a hypothetical question to the fifth-grade students at Mattlin Middle School: A nuclear strike on Long Island is imminent and you can only have six other people join you to hide in a bunker, but 10 people are there. So who do you choose?
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
The options, according to the assignment handed out, include:
- A 16-year-old pregnant girl
- A police officer with multiple charges of brutality against him, and he has his gun with him
- A 38-year-old retired prostitute
- A 75-year-old priest
- An attorney and his wife, an alcoholic, who refuse to be separated
- A 31-year-old homosexual architect
- A 50-year-old musician who used to be addicted to cocaine
- A 28-year-old drifter with no apparent skills
Take a look at the assignment the fifth-grad below:
The district received multiple complaints from parents about the homework, which was deemed inappropriate. Some said they didn't "feel comfortable" with the teacher giving out such an assignment, while another man said he "wouldn't want a fifth-grader to have to make that choice."
In a statement, the school principal said in part, "This assignment violated all of these criteria and has no place in our classrooms. We condemn this type of material in the strongest possible terms."
Retired New York City schoolteachers Sally Pollack and her husband said they do not condone the assignment, but said the teacher deserves a second chance.
"I don’t think this is an appropriate topic for fifth graders to be doing. Maybe a college class would be better," said Pollack. "We are both retired teachers so we certainly wouldn’t want somebody to get fired over making a poor decision one time...the principal was under a lot of pressure and he yielded to the pressure."
While the district investigates, the teacher has been removed from the classroom and replaced by a substitute.
The teacher at the center of the controversy did not return requests for comment from NBC New York. The teachers union declined comment.
