An assignment given to sixth-grade students at a southern Florida school this week went viral after it appeared to suggest that former president Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election were true.
In a set of questions shared online by attorney and former Republican Ron Filipkowski on Wednesday, students at Nolan Middle School near Bradenton, Florida, were asked to identify which of two statements were biased.
The first statement said Mr Trump “made claims that the 2020 election was stolen”, while the second statement said he “made false claims that the 2020 election was stolen”.
Prefaced with a statement about “media bias”, the assignment went on to allege that the second sentence “leads you to believe he is wrong before you have all of the facts,” thereby suggesting that Mr Trump had been unfairly ousted from office. This is false.
“The media is often biassed and will add words that persuade you to think one way over another,” the assignment read with instructions for students to: “Read these two statements made by reporters after the 2020 election”.
On Twitter, Mr Filipkowski said the homework sheet – which has been obtained by The Independent – had been sent to him by a parent, prompting concerns about the content of Florida school lessons following Mr Trump’s failed efforts to cling-on to power and support for Mr Trump from state governor Ron DeSantis.
It has since been liked more than 14,000 times and retweeted by almost 5,000 users on the social media site.
“This is false information. This is false,” one parent said in an interview with the Bradenton Herald on Thursday. “She’s (the teacher) talking about sources, and it’s so sad I have to look at my child and say ‘Your teacher is wrong.’ How am I supposed to explain that to a kid?”
Another parent added that they “super upset” about the political divisiveness of the assignment, which a spokesperson for the Manatee County school district said in a statement was not in-line with its requirements.
“This homework assignment does not meet the expectations of the School District of Manatee County. A thorough review of future homework lessons in this course is taking place and remaining issues related to this assignment will be addressed,” said school district spokesperson Michael Barber to The Independent.
“Our students deserve the very best education we can provide in accordance with the curriculum and instructional standards set forth by the State of Florida. “
He added that the homework was based on a chapter from a state-approved textbook, “Discovering Our Past – A History of the World Early Ages,” and that the teacher was a substitute. It was unclear to what extent the assignment differed from the content of that textbook.
Another question on the assignment sheet discussed the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States, which the teacher used to explain led to “wars in Afghanistan and Iraq”.
“Some historians now group the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq together when speaking of the (9/11) terrorist attacks. In actuality, they are not related,” the sheet read. “The War on Iraq occurred when the US suspected Iraq of having ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ This turned out to be false.”
The furore follows controversy surrounding proposals for new math textbooks for Florida, which earlier this year rejected 54 textbooks because of alleged references to “critical race theory” and “social emotional learning.” Both have been vehemently attacked by Mr DeSantis as being “woke” and banned from classrooms.
Mr DeSantis and the state’s Republican legislature been accused of stoking hate and fear against LGBT+ students following the introduction of a law banning the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay”, which came into effect this summer.
