MOBILE, Ala. — A teacher from Burns Middle School in Mobile has come under fire for giving a test with “questionable language” to her math students. The ten question word problem quiz contained scenarios that parents are calling “unacceptable” and “not at all appropriate for the classroom.”
Each of the questions centered on a situation related to street violence or drug crimes. One even included “pimps and ho’s” and “knocking up girls”.
“How many drive-by shootings can Ramon attempt before he has to steal enough ammunition and reload?” one question asked.
The third question asks, “Dwayne pimps three ho’s. If the price is $85 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Dwayne’s $800 per day crack habbit?”
“Tyrone knocked up 4 girls in the gang. There are 20 girls in his gang. What is the exact percentage of girls Tyrone knocked up?” another inquired.
Some of the middle school students thought that the questions were humorous. Their parents however, did not find them quite as funny.
“My son, he took a picture of it in class and he texted it to me. I couldn’t believe it,” Erica Hall said to WSFA. Almost immediately, Hall and her husband went to the school demanding answers.
“I’m shocked. I don’t think it’s appropriate at all,” another parent told WSFA. Yet another said that she would not want the test given to her sixth grader.
This quiz is not a unique phenomenon to Burns Middle. Variations of the same quiz have been floating around on the internet for about a decade. Similar quizzes have caused uproar in in Texas, California, New Mexico, and now Alabama.
While the school has not released the teacher’s name, WSFA reported that she has been placed on immediate administrative leave pending an internal investigation. According to one parent, the quiz was given by a teacher who has been at Burns for quite some time. She is reportedly retiring at the end of this year.
You can judge the questions for yourself by looking at the quiz here.
