Pleasant Hope, MISSOURI

Score one for parents.

Mar 10, 2007 - When a 7th grader came home asking his mother what sodomy was, a parent found out that the social studies teacher assigned seventh-graders to read — and then write about — articles that detailed cases where children murdered preschoolers.

One article came from a true crime Web site, the other from the CBS News show "48 Hours," and touched on possible reasons children might become murderers, the impact murders had on families and consequences for the murderers.

Both articles described how young children were battered or strangled to death and included references to sexual assault and sodomy. Their murderers were ages 10 and 13.

Parents were incensed. The teacher was son of the school Superintendent. Nevertheless, the school board voted not to renew his contract and put him on administrative leave until the end of the school year. [They don't say if it is with pay or not.]

As a commenter wrote at the news site, "A person with such immature judgment should not have the "pulpit" of a classroom teacher."