A homework assignment has been removed from some Delaware eighth-grade students' to-do lists after one Sussex County parent found it controversial.
The homework assignment involved an article headlined “Blue and Black," which is adapted from The New York Times and is about police-involved shootings of African Americans. One parent, a woman whose husband is a police officer and whose middle schooler brought home the article, told NBC10 that there may be issues to be discussed regarding police shootings, the article sends a message that officers can’t be trusted.
“I think it is totally one-sided promoting racism. It’s pretty much telling young kids that the cops are bad people,” said the parent, who identified herself only as Jill.
She wouldn’t let her daughter use the article as a source to answer the related questions for her homework. When the parent asked school administrators about the article, they told her they were not going to use it again.
NBC10 reached out to Scholastic for comment who responded, "In our Classroom Magazines, Scholastic aims to provide high-quality content about current events in an age-appropriate way so as to spark meaningful discussion among teachers and students. We take special care when addressing issues that are controversial. We are gratified by the positive response that we have received from educators about the most recent issues of Junior Scholastic and The New York Times Upfront, where we explain the Black Lives Matter movement for middle and high school readers."
