Florida father Omar Austin couldn’t believe his eyes when he read his teen daughter’s homework assignment for one of her classes. There was a sexually-explicit question about “baby daddies” and “revenge sex” on his daughter’s anatomy assignment.
Austin posted a video of himself on Facebook reading the homework assignment. So far, the video has been viewed more than 70,000 times. Austin also posted a caption to Facebook that says that the assignment is “a disgrace to our education system.” Demanding answers from the Westside High School, Austin also said “This needs to be seen…what the hell is going on in our schools?” It seems that others agree with Austin. People posted various comments on the video that he posted, including one that just said: “wow, just wow!”
Although the anatomy question was interesting and certainly got attention, it crossed the line from creative to offensive.
Here is the question that angered the Jacksonville father so much:
“Ursula was devastated when her boyfriend broke up with her after having sex. To get revenge, she had sex with his best friend the next day. Ursula had a beautiful baby girl 9 months later. Ursula has type O blood, her ex-boyfriend is type AB blood, and his best friend is type A blood. If her baby daddy is her ex-boyfriend, what could her baby’s possible blood types) NOT be?”
Austin said that when he first read the question, he thought it was a joke. He told the news station WTLV that this type of question is not appropriate for an 11th-grade assignment. He said that it is something that you would see on soap operas and reality TV shows. Austin also said that the question perpetuates stereotypes “being an inner city school, these are already stigmas we have to get past,” says Austin.
The angry father said that lesson taught is not one he wants to teach his 11th-grade daughter. The girl in the hypothetical scenario is having sex with one guy one day, and then has sex with his best friend the next to get revenge. Plus, the words “baby mama” and “baby daddy” are just not appropriate to use in a high school assignment.
Duval County Public Schools responded to Austin’s concerns, agreeing that the question was inappropriate. They confirmed that it was not part of the district assessment. According to them, the question was “computer-generated.” They are not sure if someone made an honest mistake or if the question was some kind of joke.
School officials said that as soon as they were made aware of the situation, the immediately began investigating the situation. They promised to take corrective action against whoever is responsible. The district also encouraged concerned parents to contact school officials directly if they ever have any issues with their children’s educational experience at Duval County Public Schools. Officials promised to immediately work to problem solve any issues that parents have with the school.
Austin said that he hopes that teachers will be more careful in the future about what assignments they pass out. He was told by his daughter that a teacher just printed out the assignment and handed it out. Austin believes that every assignment should be thoroughly read by school administrators or teachers before it is passed out to students.
After finally thoroughly investigating the situation, the school determined that the question had been written by another teacher and then shared on a digital platform for teachers.
Even though the question was not created by the district, school officials said that the particular question will not be used again at Westside High School, saying it falls short of the school’s standards. School officials went on to apologize to all of the students and parents in the school district.
~ Liberty Planet
