After a rash of parent complaints, a principal at Swanson Middle School in Arlington cancelled a debate assignment where students were asked to take the Taliban point of view during a mock UN Security Council session. Principal Chrystal Forrester and 2 other teachers, presumably the ones who made the assignment, have said the assignment was “clearly a bad choice for a debate topic.”
An email was sent out to the parents of the Swanson 8th graders with the following message, according to the Washington Post:
Recognizing the pain that has touched many of our families and neighbors due to the terrorist attacks on the United States and acknowledging the sensitive nature of the conflict in Afghanistan involving many of our dedicated members of the U.S. armed forces, we have eliminated this topic as part of the U.N. unit of study effective immediately,”
