Sharing joke test with students gets Metro teacher put on leaveBy LEE ANN O'NEAL
Staff Writer
Off-color humor circulated on Internet
''Rufus is pimping for three girls. If the price is $65 for each trick, how many tricks will each girl have to turn so Rufus can pay for his $800-per-day crack habit?''
A Metro teacher was placed on paid administrative leave this week after distributing a fake test with this question and others that make light of child abuse, shootings, drug use and teen pregnancy.
The off-color jokes, which have circulated on the Internet in different versions, have led to teacher disciplinary action around the country after similar incidents.
Versions of the test have sparked public indignation in school districts from Riverside, Calif., to Chicago, Ill.
Metro schools launched an investigation of Pearl-Cohn High School art teacher Warne Riker when the allegations surfaced on Thursday.
The two-page spoof of a mathematics test asks students to compute the street value of cocaine, reflect on whether their families live in a trailer park and contemplate how many years of imprisonment they would serve if they killed their wives.
Riker could not be reached. The 34-year-old was hired by Metro schools in 1997.
''He has admitted that he did share this with three to four of his students and indicated that … he thought it was funny, amusing,'' Metro schools spokeswoman Olivia Brown said. ''It was not intended to be a class assignment or anything that was shared with a large number of students.''
Metro schools spokesman Woody McMillin said Riker was not allowed to finish the school day Thursday after administrators learned of the allegations through a call from a local television reporter.
''We strongly want to state that it was certainly not appropriate for a teacher to share that kind of information with students,'' McMillin said, ''and we immediately expressed that to Mr. Riker and asked him to come into the office.''
The internal investigation could lead to a letter of reprimand, suspension or dismissal, McMillin said.
Test excerpts
Questions on a fake test distributed by a Metro art teacher:
• Duane has an AK47 with a 30 round clip. If he misses 6 out of 10 shots and shoots 13 times at each drive by shooting, how many drive by shootings can he attempt before he has to reload?
• If Jose has two ounces of cocaine and he sells an 8 ball to Jackson for $320 and 2 grams to Billy for $85 per gram, what is the street value of the balance of the cocaine if he doesn't cut it?
• Your daddy hit you? True False
• Did you have any kids while you were still in high school? True False
SOURCE: Metro schools document sent to them by WTVF-Channel 5
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