Texas school halts ‘cocaine assignment’ for middle schoolers after outrage
A North Texas school district has halted an assignment requiring sixth-graders to make a step-by-step plan on how dealers distribute cocaine after public outrage when a parent reported the news and it made national headlines.
KTVT-TV reported Monday that a teacher in Keller issued an assignment called: “The Cocaine Trade: From Field to Street” after Scott Pick reported how his 11-year-old was doing makeup work after being ill. Pick discovered that the Bear Creek Intermediate school assignment involved the students learning and reporting on the steps from drug cartel to street dealer.
“I walked by and noticed that in big bold letters across the front of his assignment it said… COCAINE,” said Scott Pick.
Administrators responded by saying they take drug abuse very seriously and the study sheet will be reviewed before being used again.
screenshot of video coverage by CBS
After this story broke, @KellerISD tweeted this week about the $100,000 government grant it received for drug prevention.
Keller ISD has been awarded a $100,000 drug prevention grant for a Community Coalition Task Force. https://t.co/soAJfP2UMQ
— Keller Schools (@KellerISD) December 14, 2015
Texas is used to defending its educational materials. This year, textbook publisher McGraw-Hill had to change its reference to slaves as ‘workers’ after one mother’s social media campaign.
“It’s no accident that this happened in Texas,” Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, told the New York Times. “We have a textbook adoption process that’s so politicized and so flawed that it’s become almost a punch line for comedians.”
