'How high are you in three hours?' Teacher sets maths questions using drug references
A US teacher has apologised after sparking outrage when students were given two maths questions about cocaine and drug dealers.
Concerned parents demanded answers from Illinois' Roxana School District after their children, aged 14 to 15, were subject to the questions on Wednesday when the teacher wrote them up on the classroom's whiteboard.
"You take 600mg of cocaine, your body filters out 40% per hour, how high are you in three hours?" the first question read.
"Unfortunately, you can't pay your dealer, so she sets up a payment. You owe her $1000 at 25% daily, how much do you owe one year later?" the second asked.
Pictures of the maths problems surfaced on social media, prompting parents to raise their concerns over the choice of subject matter.
“We don’t need to be teaching children how long it takes to filter cocaine out of their bodies - that is ridiculous,” parent Christy Scott told US television station KRON.
"That is not what we should be doing. We should be preventing this and not teaching them how to get rid of it.”
Mother Christina Metz told Fox Denver the questions were "basically teaching them how to use [drugs]".
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"I think they could have used something else like cans of soda, bottles of water, maybe fruit... instead of cocaine and drugs," she suggested.
The local district revealed the teacher has since apologised for his error in judgement and claimed his intentions were innocent.
"The faculty member has apologised to students and parents for this lapse in judgment and has reiterated the intent was never to promote or make light of illicit drug use," a statement read.
"The district is taking the necessary measures to ensure that the damage is repaired. The district is addressing this issue as a personnel matter according to district policy."
One student revealed he believed the teacher was only trying to associate with his pupils by using the controversial questions.
“Either he was trying to relate in some way with the kids, or try to be funny or something like that,” they said.
