An Alabama Teacher Is In Trouble After Giving Her Students A Racist AF Quiz
What do you get when you add one brainless teacher and a classroom full of impressionable students?
Teachers are supposed to be intelligent, respectable and exemplary
Unfortunately, teachers don't always fall into these categories. Take JoAnne Bolser, for instance. She is—or perhaps more accurately was—a Language Arts teacher at a middle school in Mobile, Alabama. She managed to defy all necessary traits of a teacher in one incredibly stupid and shockingly racist action.
Bolser handed a "joke" quiz out to her students recently, one that featured offensive, racially insensitive questions—and we can't possibly fathom how it's funny or why she would've thought it was a good idea to distribute the quiz to her students.
JoAnne Bolser teaches at Cranford H. Burns Middle School in Mobile, Alabama
Bolser, a Language Arts teacher at the school, is currently in hot water for giving her students a copy of a "joke" math quiz that references gang activity, murder, racial stereotypes, sex and drugs, among other things. She had planned to retire this year.
Calling the quiz "inappropriate" is an understatement—it's racist, bigoted and has absolutely no place in the government-funded school system.
Here's an example of some of the quiz questions Bolser gave her students
As you can see, these two questions alone feature a drive-by shooting, robbery, drug usage and racial stereotypes. The quiz was 10 questions in total.
According to NBC News, one student took a picture of the quiz and sent it to his parents, who subsequently complained. Apparently, theirs was the only complained filed against Bolser, which is actually incredibly concerning. "[The students] took it as a joke, and [Bolser] told them that it wasn't a joke, and they had to complete it, and turn it in."
According to Snopes, the quiz Bolser handed her students has been a "humor" piece floating around the Internet for decades now
Snopes reported the quiz is called the "City of Los Angeles High School Math Proficiency Exam" and it "has been part of online lore since at least 1993," though some claim it has been around even longer. There are numerous versions of the quiz (the above questions coming from Snopes' replication), but it always features the same themes: violence, drugs, prostitution and racism.
Unsurprisingly, Bolser been placed on administrative leave following the incident
Though all teachers are required to have their lesson plans approved by the school, it's unclear whether or not the administration approved Bolser's usage of the quiz. One would hope the school administration isn't as stupid as this particular individual.
Bolser's future is also currently undetermined, though it's clear most students and teachers were shocked by Bolser's actions, claiming her to be a "strict teacher." If she is ultimately terminated before she has the chance to retire, that's is one hell of a way to go out—as a bigot with poor judgment. It's a shame her mistake is obscuring the work of so many hard-working teachers at the school.