monkey nonsense

By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 30, 2004; Page B03

A 10th-grade geometry teacher at Oxon Hill High School has been reassigned after he gave students an exam that used references to drugs and weapons in word problems.

The teacher, whose name was not disclosed by the Prince George’s County school system, has been given an office job that does not involve contact with students while officials investigate the incident. In a letter sent home with students yesterday, the high school’s principal, Ronald Curtis, explained that the teacher “inadvertently” distributed an “e-mail ‘joke’ math examination.”

Officials did not say when the exam was given, but several students and a parent said it was during the first week of school this year. The incident was first reported by WRC-TV (Channel 4).

The questions, which the teacher found on the Internet, included: “Jose has 2 ounces of cocaine. If he sells an 8 ball to Antonio for $320 and 2 grams to Juan for $85 per gram, what is the street value of the rest of his hold?” Another example: “Willie gets $200 for a stolen BMW, $150 for stealing a Corvette, and $100 for a 4X4. If he steals 1 BMW, 2 Corvettes, and 3 4X4’s, how many more Corvettes must he steal to have $900?”

At the top of the test, students were asked to write their name as well as their “gang name.”

In his letter to parents, Curtis, the principal, said the teacher immediately collected the test from students but was not able to retrieve all of them.

However, Jennifer McNeill, an Oxon Hill resident, said that her 15-year-old daughter took the test and that the teacher returned the test to students earlier this week and reviewed the answers with them. “I was flabbergasted. I was outraged,” McNeill said. “I was in shock. Mad, angry. I felt betrayed.”

School officials said in a statement yesterday that the teacher had an excellent professional reputation and had no record of previous allegations of misconduct.

Several students defended the teacher yesterday, carrying signs supporting him as classes ended for the day and arguing that he was simply trying to relate to them. “It was just a joke,” said Delonte Budd, 15. “It didn’t offend. He’s a good teacher.”

June White Dillard, president of the Prince George’s chapter of the NAACP, said the school system should give the teacher a more serious punishment. “We can’t have these negative stereotypes going on,” she said. “It was extremely poor judgment. We want this to be lesson to all of the teachers.”

Staff Slip Gives Liquor to Children at Alexandria Private School

By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 29, 2004; Page B01

It was not the sort of letter a school delights in sending home to its families.

“Dear Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade Parents:

“It is with great regret that I tell you that your child may have been exposed to alcohol today at lunch,” said the missive signed by Alexander Harvey IV, head of the private Alexandria Country Day School.

It was tequila and margarita mix, to be precise, left in the refrigerator in a pitcher and mistaken for limeade by kitchen staff, who poured it into small cups and served it to children as a lunch treat, he wrote.

Some youngsters didn’t like the smell and declined; others took a sip and declared it “gross,” according to parents and Harvey.

An administrator who realized something was wrong started investigating, Harvey said, and quickly discovered that the limeade was really liquor — although it is unclear why the kitchen staff didn’t notice. It had been left over, he said, from a party two days earlier at the school for the staff, faculty and Board of Trustees.

The cups were collected, teachers were told and students were observed for any ill effects. There were none, Harvey said; the most any child took was believed to be a few sips because no cup was close to being emptied. The episode, he said, left him mortified.

“I am embarrassed and deeply sorry that this happened,” Harvey wrote in the letter, adding that liquor was immediately banned on campus — a policy already set at many schools — and that all future faculty parties would be off school grounds. He also spoke with staff about health issues involved with serving children food or drink from open containers.

Alexandria police spokeswoman Amy Bertsch said nobody informed the police. Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney S. Randolph Sengel said that “while it’s true procuring alcohol for someone under the legal age of 21 is illegal,” the incident would not rise to the level of criminal conduct because the kitchen staff members did not know they were serving alcohol. He said it sounded like “an innocent mistake.”

Harvey told parents in the letter that everybody in the school, with 240 students from kindergarten through eighth grade who pay tuition from $14,200 to $15,600, was informed the same day, Sept. 10.

“We ask the students to be honest and admit their mistakes, and we should do the same,” the letter said.

Parents learned about the episode that day when their children came home talking about it and carrying Harvey’s letter.

Bill Paxson, a former U.S. congressman who has two children at the school, said yesterday that his third-grader was “very excited about it.”

“Her words were, ‘Something really fun and illegal happened today at school.’ Then she proceeded to say what happened. She said it was gross and disgusting stuff. . . . She said she tasted it and it was so disgusting she couldn’t drink it.”

Paxson said he was pleased with the school’s reaction.

“They handled it in a textbook way,” he said.

Kim McKernan, vice president of the Parent-Teacher League, said yesterday that she heard parents praising Harvey for addressing the situation “so quickly and honestly” and that nobody she knew had questioned why the staff did not realize alcohol was being served.

Harvey said he received no complaints from parents.

from an old washingtonpost article no longer available