A seventh grader in Katy, Texas says her schoolteacher handed out an assignment requiring that she and the rest of the class deny God exists, reports local station KHOU.
The assignment entitled “Identifying Factual Claims, Commonplace Assertions, and Opinions” was intended to foster critical thinking – but among seventh graders, not college students?
Jordan Wooley, 12, was asked by her reading teacher at West Memorial Junior High School to identify whether the statement, “There is a God,” is a "fact," "commonplace assertion," or "opinion."
She answered in two ways:
“I said it was fact or opinion. Based on my religion and based on what I think and believe, I do not think it was a commonplace assertion.”
Wooley claimed her teacher said both her answers were wrong and that she had to say God was not real.
“I didn't really know what to do, so the first thing I did was tell my mom," Wooley said.
Her mother Chantel couldn't believe it:
“A kid was literally graded against her faith in God in a classroom,” she said.
After going to her mother Chantel for counsel, Wooley went to testify before the Katy school district’s Board of Education on Monday.
“Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith," she told district officials.
"I tried to reference things such as the Bible, and stories that I’ve read before from people who’ve died and gone to heaven. She told me that both were just things that people were doing to get attention.”
The Katy ISD Board of Education released a statement on Tuesday, saying that, while the assignment was intended to encourage critical thinking and dialogue in the classroom, it “does not excuse the fact that this ungraded activity was ill-conceived and because of that, its intent has been misconstrued.”
“In college but in seventh grade?” said Jordan Wooley’s mother.
“Are we talking about impressionable 12- or 13-year-olds or are we talking about 24-year-olds in college who already have a firm grasp of the world around them?”
While the board claimed the assignment was "ungraded," Wooley offered a different story.
"I love reading so for me personally to have to fail reading because of what my beliefs are just shocked me,” she said.
In their statement, the Katy ISD Board of Education cautioned people not to villify the teacher without knowing her or fully knowing the facts of the case.
Check out the full KHOU report below.
H/T Fox News Insider