Parents, Activists Protest Controversial Beaver Ridge Elementary Homework Assignment

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - Dozens of community activists and parents demonstrated Tuesday against the Gwinnett County teachers who handed out a controversial math assignment that referenced slavery.

The protest was over a homework assignment sent home to third-graders at Beaver Ridge Elementary last week that included such questions as ”Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick? Another question asked, ”If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week? Two weeks?" A third question in the assignment asked how many baskets of cotton Frederick filled.

Protesters not only called for the teachers to be fired, but they urged Goveor Nathan Deal to step in and make sure a proper investigation is done.

"I'm all over the world speaking to injustice, this is injustice. And by God we're going to be here. We're small numbers now, but we'll be back in large numbers unless something happens immediately, said Joe Beasley of Rainbow PUSH.

Nicole Thompson's son came home with the controversial third-grade math homework last Wednesday.

"It's really just shocking that in 2012, we're still fighting against ignorance, said Thompson.

The principal of the school apologized to Thompson and her husband on Tuesday. They were told the math word problems referenced slavery, because the students were leaing about slavery in their history class, and the cross-referencing of subjects was meant to reinforce the lesson.

"If you want to infuse these two subjects together, go with positive statements, not negative statements about beatings and picking cotton. That's not a way to teach children, said Thompson.

The school district has said the questions were inappropriate .

An inteal investigation is ongoing to see how many teachers knew about them.

On Tuesday, a district spokesperson told FOX 5 that one teacher wrote the questions, another made copies and two others --for a total of four -- handed them out to their classes.

"We're calling for the immediate firing of any teacher that decided that this curriculum and giving out this worksheet, was OK, said community activists Derrick Bozeman.

A school spokesperson says all the teachers are still on the job while the district investigates.

However, Thompson says her son's teacher has not been in class all week.