A Luther Burbank High School freshman was surprised to read his full name included on a biology final. Not only that, but he was being ridiculed. “In high school, there are individuals who are cross-eyed like (the name of a fellow student) and (the name of the student previously mentioned), which is a dominant trait. We call those individuals ‘weirdoes’. So, if you crossed two weirdoes (the two students named again), that are heterozygous for being cross-eyed, what is the offspring that would result?” Many students in the class were targeted by first and last name on the exam. Teacher Alex Nguyen chose to describe these students by their ethnicities and physical features, and then paired them up, posing questions about what traits a theoretical child of these two students would have. On one question, the teacher wrote a disclaimer, saying “in no way do I promote students being sexually active,” but the student’s parents and other teachers at the school said that the implication of any sexual relationship between students is inappropriate.

  • @jpreston2005
    6•5 months ago

    Another question targeted two students who got in trouble for sleeping in class, again asking students to speculate about what would happen if these students were to have children.

    “Here at the wonderful school of LBHS, we have certain students who love to sleep in class. I even see students fall asleep during exams! Can you believe that?! I don’t like it when students sleep in class… it’s rude! So, WAKE THE #$%K UP! Well, through much study, I have concluded that the gene for falling asleep is dominant. Not only that some students sleep, they snore in class. This too is a dominant trait. What are the possible offspring if you cross a homozygous sleeping, heterozygous snoring student (student name) with a homozygous attentive, non-snoring (student name) student?”

    “(When I saw that) I was like, so it’s not like you’re joking about it. You’re being serious about it, because that’s what they really do,” the Allens’ son said. “That’s how I knew he was not playing around.”

    OK so this wasn’t OK, but I get it. On one hand, the majority of the time, I’m a student that appreciates their teachers. I pay attention, I ask questions if I need to, and I don’t interrupt. The people that do have always pissed me off. Especially when I was in college, and I would have loved to see a teacher lay into these types of students who only ever frustrate and distract while everyone else is trying to learn. That being said, I’ve also had bad teachers. In 4th grade, I had a teacher that was a misandrist. She gave favorable treatment and grades to the girls in the class, and would be mean to the boys. It sucked, and every boy complained about her, but nothing was ever done. Thankfully, I only ever had her for that one year, but she did make it miserable.

    All that being said, I’m still planning to run for office someday, and one of my platforms will be to double all teachers pay.