Student Claims Teacher Forced Class to Admit God Isn't Real
DISTRICT SAYS HER STORY IS MORE FICTION THAN FACT
By Michael Harthorne, Newser Staff
newser.com
Posted Oct 29, 2015 2:33 PM CDT
(NEWSER) – "Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith and told me that God was not real," Texas seventh-grader Jordan Wooley told the Katy school board Monday. The Houston Chronicle reports Jordan was complaining about a critical-thinking skills assignment in which students were tasked with classifying statements as facts, opinions, or commonplace assertions. The specific statement in question: "There is a God." According to the Katy Rancher, Jordan cited the Bible and stories of people returning from Heaven to show that the existence of God is a fact. Her teacher—also a Christian—disagreed. Jordan claims students who refused to say God was a "myth" were threatened with failing the assignment, the Chronicle reports. She stays students broke down, crying and throwing their belongings to the ground.
Unfortunately for Jordan, an investigation into her claims, including interviews with other students, couldn't prove those claims were facts either, the Rancher reports. "Was the activity graded? No. Was it 40% of their grade? Absolutely not. Were the students told they had to deny God? Nobody corroborated that,” superintendent Alton Frailey told the school board Wednesday. According to theChronicle, Frailey did say the question about God was "ill-conceived" and shouldn't have been included in the assignment, and that Jordan was brave for standing up for her beliefs. "No student … will have their faith denounced," he said. KHOU reports the assignment will not be used again, and the teacher—who was only borrowing the assignment from another faculty member—is taking a voluntary leave of absence after Jordan's claims caused a public outcry. |
