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Teacher Suspended After Showing Students The Hobbit And To Kill A Mockingbird

Teacher Suspended After Showing Students The Hobbit And To Kill A Mockingbird

The films were deemed to be not age-appropriate

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A teacher in Canada has been suspended after showing his class The Hobbit and To Kill a Mockingbird.

The movies were shown in September 2018, shortly after the school term began. The former film was not curriculum-related and the latter was not deemed age-appropriate for his grade six and seven classes (ages 11 to 13).

Andrew Dennis was given a single-day suspension after he showed the movies to his classes at Prince George elementary school in British Columbia in 2018.

Parents complained to the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation and in a report posted this week Howard Kushner, a British Columbia commissioner for teacher regulation, wrote that To Kill a Mockingbird was not 'age appropriate', as it 'deals with racism and rape' and contains the use of the 'N-word'.

PA

Kushner also wrote that neither The Hobbit and To Kill a Mockingbird were on the curriculum for the grades he taught.

The report states Bennis was given a letter of expectation from the school district in 2018, in regards to showing non-curriculum and age-inappropriate material, and he shared this information with his class.

But following the letter, Dennis read the Shirley Jackson short story The Lottery to his students and showed them the short film - for those unfamiliar with the story, it tells the tale of a small town in the US that uses a lottery to choose one person to sacrifice by stoning each year.

After reading the story, Dennis got his students involved in a game of dodgeball based upon the stoning scene, in which students drew pieces of paper out of a hat and those that drew paper with a dot on it had dodgeballs thrown at them.

Dennis was once again reminded to stick to the curriculum for his six and seven grade students.

To Kill a Mockingbird was deemed to not be age-appropriate for the teacher's pupils.
Universal Pictures

Students also complained about the classroom being noisy and unruly while Dennis was teaching.

The report states: "The classroom was very loud as Dennis was not able to maintain control over his students.

"At least one student reported being negatively affected by the noise level in the classroom."

The ruling found that as well as a one-day suspension, Dennis must complete a Creating a Positive Learning Environment through the Justice Institute of British Columbia by the end of this year.

Dennis is not permitted to teach kindergarten or grades one to seven until he has completed the course.

Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros

Topics: Canada