A West Virginia middle school sent students an online lesson that accused Republicans of promoting discrimination against Asian-Americans by referring to the coronavirus as a "Chinese virus."
Stephanie Laney, the parent of an eighth grader at Hurricane Middle School, sent me a copy of the assignment her daughter received in English class. Here’s a link to the assignment.
Like many students around the country, Stephanie's daughter is currently attending classes online due to the coronavirus.
The lesson was created by newsela, an education-based organization that provides classroom content.
The lesson focused on a story written by the Texas Tribune titled, "Asian Americans say some politicians stoking stigma with coronavirus."
Attached to the story was a quiz that included blatant anti-Trump and anti-Republican statements.
"Read the following claim," the lesson stated. "Republican leaders have used insensitive language based on unfounded rumors when referring to the coronavirus. Which sentence from the article provides the BEST support for the above statement?"
Among the choices:
- His comment referenced a now-debunked myth that the outbreak began after a woman in China ate bat soup.
- Coryn later said that he meant to say that the Chinese government was to blame, not Chinese people or Chinese culture.
- Yet experts say that this kind of language encourages people to view the disease in simplistic geographic or racial terms.
- When the Ebola outbreak emerged in 2014, Africans were the primary target of bias.
Laney told me she could not believe the school would assign eighth graders such a politically-charged lesson.
"I was speechless and completely appalled that the school system would allow this kind of garbage to be brainwashed into our kids," she said.
She told me she called the school superintendent in Putnam County and was assured the lesson would be removed and the teacher would be spoken to.
I reached out to the superintendent via email and have yet to receive a reply. When I do, I will update this story with the superintendent's comments at the top of the story.
"I'm more worried about how the school system brainwashes these children than anything. No wonder society has become so disrespectful to our president," she said.
It's bad enough when public schools try to brainwash kids with socialist propaganda, but it's even worse when they try to brainwash the kids with Communist Chinese propaganda.