The mayor of Hudson, Ohio, is calling for the resignation of the entire Board of Education after high school students received a controversial book with writing assignments that asked them to describe sexual experiences, pretend to be a serial killer, and that describe the taste of beer.
“I’ve been struck by the fact that your educators distribute what is essentially child pornography in the classroom,” Mayor Craig Shubert said Monday at a board meeting.
“I spoke to a judge this evening, he has already confirmed it. I will give you a simple option: either resign from this Board of Education or you will be charged,” the mayor continued.
It is unclear what charges board members could face. David Zuro, chairman of the board, said Wednesday that no member has expressed any intention to resign.
“While we respect the mayor’s position within the city of Hudson, in accordance with Ohio state law, oversight of the public schools in this district is the responsibility of the Board of Education,” said Zuro in a statement.
The task that sparked the mayor’s strong reaction was a book titled “642 Things To Write About” that was given to seniors taking a college credit course at Hudson High School.
The book contains directions such as, “write a sermon for a beloved preacher who has been caught in a sex scandal,” “describe your favorite part of a man’s body with only verbs,” “choose how you will die,” and ” write a Disney scenario with an X rating, “according to Cleveland.com.
Other directions prompted students to “write a sex scene you wouldn’t show your mother” and then “rewrite the sex scene from above into another that let your mother read.” He also asked students to grab a beer and “write about taste” and list the TV shows that would be on their DVR list if they were serial killers.
The book also contained less provocative directions, such as describing the worst Thanksgiving dish or writing about the perfect day as an astronaut.
The diary received some of the directions from Monica Havens, a mother whose daughter received the book.
“I asked my daughter if she had been reading a book with inappropriate things and she said yes,” Havens said, telling the newspaper that some of the directions are “horrible”.
“I can’t even wrap my brain with a teacher, I don’t care if it’s for college credit, they’re minors,” he said.
School principal Brian Wilch said at the board meeting that the school learned of the instructions last Friday.
“We did not exercise due diligence when we reviewed this appeal and, as a result, we overlooked several writing indications among the 642 that are not appropriate for our high school audience,” he told the meeting.
“We feel terrible. At no time have any of these inappropriate indications been selected or discussed, but they were still there, could be seen and cannot be seen. That is why we have apologized to the parents of our students for this oversight. . “
The principal said the school is picking up the students ’book.