Michael Maxwell, a high school teacher in St. Joseph, Missouri, was suspended from work this week after asking his class to write an essay about the person they would most like to murder and how they would do it. The macabre nature of this project was exacerbated by the fact that Maxwell is an industrial technology teacher (the class formerly known as SHOP), and he gave the writing assignment to his drafting class. One wonders why drafting students are writing horror stories, especially when drafting class is such a swell place to construct a murder implement. Sadly, news reports didn't elaborate on how the students' essays turned out, though Gadfly can't get gory scenes from Child's Play 2 out of his mind. Our guess for most popular subject and method? Paris Hilton, with a candlestick, in the kitchen.
"Mo. Teacher Suspended Over Assignment," Associated Press, May 15, 2006
