Jordan Wooley
Chantel Wooley / Via facebook.com
A seventh-grade assignment at a Texas middle school asked students to deny the existence of God, a student and her family said this week, prompting an apology from the school district.
The writing assignment asked students to answer whether each item on a list was a fact, commonplace assertion, or an opinion. It was intended to utilize critical thinking skills, not to question anyone's religious beliefs, the school said.
Jordan Wooley, a 12-year-old student in the class, said the teacher told students that God is a "myth."
Officials for the Katy Independent School District near Houston apologized for the writing assignment Wednesday, saying it should not have been used and was highly inappropriate. Still, the school said that they could not confirm the student's allegations that she was forced to deny the existence of God.
The West Memorial Junior High student "truly felt her faith was being questioned and she felt justified in defending it and I support that," Superintendent Alton L. Frailey said at a news conference, according to the Associated Press. "However, the assertion that the teacher deliberately tried to force her to deny her God or threatened her God, that was not corroborated."
Chantal Wooley / Via facebook.com
"Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith and told me that God was not real," Wooley told the Katy school board on Monday during its monthly meeting.
The 12-year-old said her teacher told them that anyone who said God was a fact "was wrong and that God is only a myth."
Wooley said the teacher "started telling kids they were completely wrong and that when kids would argue, she had told them that we would get in trouble."
"When I tried to argue, she told me to prove it," Wooley said, citing the Bible and stories about people returning from heaven. "She told me both were just things that people were doing to get attention."
Wooley said other students were negatively affected and that her friend went home crying because of the assignment. She told the board that the friend was going to come speak with her, but decided she couldn't.
"Another child in my class had asked the teacher if we could put what we believe on the paper, and she said 'you can if you want to get the problem wrong, which you will fail the paper if you do,'” Wooley told the board.
"I felt like this was really wrong and I didn't feel like it was fair for my faith and my religion to have anything to do with what I'm learning about in school," Wooley said.
Chantel Wooley, the seventh grader's mom, posted a video of her daughter describing the classroom incident:
Her mom also posted this text message conversation with her daughter:
Chantel Wooley / Via facebook.com
The school district said it interviewed other students from the class and could not corroborate Wooley's accusation that the teacher was forcing students to deny God.
The school said in a statement that the teacher never used the word "myth" and that the teacher "welcomed all students' views."
The district said it would seek appropriate action for the teacher, whose name has not been released.
"The teacher is distraught by this incident, as some commentary has gone as far as to vilify her without knowing her, her Christian faith, or the context of the classroom activity," the district said. "Still, this does not excuse the fact that this ungraded activity was ill-conceived and because of that, its intent had been misconstrued."
On Tuesday, after the issue started to gain widespread attention, especially on social media, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted his support of Wooley and the following evening he invited her to the Governor's Mansion.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1kcDMsS
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