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2nd grader was “instructed to send picture doing reading homework in bathtub,” parents say

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A second-grade student was removed from the classroom after her parents questioned a homework assignment.

Students at Victory Christian Academy were asked to “send a picture of you doing reading homework in the bathtub.”

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“A bathtub is not appropriate for a child to take a picture,” Misty Dunham said.

Misty and her husband, Christopher, were shocked to see this written on their 8-year-old’s homework assignment.

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“I emailed the teacher ‘Hey, you may want to explain that. Send something out to the parents. Let them know what the intentions are.’ This just does not sound OK,” Misty Dunham said. “She did send out a message saying, ‘you should be in pajamas, be in your uniform, have fun with it.’ But, it didn’t sit right.”

Misty Dunham reached out to the school administration, and later to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, to document the incident.

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In a police report obtained by Action News Jax, it states parents were told by administrators, “we have been sending this homework assignment for years, and you’re the only one complaining about it.” Police advised the parents not to take the photo.

Later, the Dunham family said they got a call from the school.

“(He said) ‘I think you guys should do a parental withdrawal for the child.’ I said, ‘I can’t. I can’t do that. We refuse to withdraw her,’” Misty Dunham said. “He said, ‘OK thank you for saying that,’ and continued on saying that, ‘Well, we’re going to proceed with an administration withdraw.’”

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Documentation from the school indicates their daughter is no longer a student at Victory Christian Academy.

“No explanation,” Misty Dunham said.

The family believes this sends the wrong message.

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“She did something right by telling mom and dad that she wasn’t comfortable with something, and now she’s no longer in school,” Christopher Dunham said.

The President of Victory Christian Academy, Pastor Jesse Latta, sent us this statement regarding the assignment:

“There was an assignment given, as I understand you have received a copy. It was taken out of an online teacher resource and has been used in many schools. There were certainly no bad intentions with this assignment. When a parent contacted our teacher with a complaint, our teacher immediately sent out correspondence to all parents in the class to assure them that there were no bad intentions with this assignment and to clarify the guidelines. No additional concerns were presented to the teacher. While the assignment was completely innocent, out of an abundance of caution and for there to be no misunderstandings, our administration has removed this particular assignment for any future use. We value our children and their safety is our top priority. We will continue to serve the children and families in which the Lord has graciously allowed us to have a part in their lives.” —   Pastor Jesse Latta

We asked about the status of the student and why there was an “administrative withdraw” from the school for this student. We have not heard back.

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FL school 'expels' second-grader after parents object to assignment asking for pic of her doing homework in bathtub

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: A second grader was "administratively withdrawn” from a school after her parents raised concerns about a homework assignment that asked students to take "a picture of you doing reading homework in the bathtub.”

Misty and Christopher Dunham, of Jacksonville, recalled their surprise when students at Victory Christian Academy received the homework among other assignments , which included practicing “Psalm 24: 1-2 with an adult” three times, reading “Fun With Friends,” as well as practicing spelling, arithmetic, and phonics ahead of future tests. However, the unusual request to take a bathroom snap prompted Misty to send a message to her daughter's teacher at the Jacksonville school.

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“I emailed the teacher ‘Hey, you may want to explain that. Send something out to the parents. Let them know what the intentions are.’ This just does not sound OK,” she told WJAX . “She did send out a message saying, ‘You should be in pajamas, be in your uniform, have fun with it.’ But, it didn’t sit right.”

Misty subsequently filed a report with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, stating how school administrators told the Dunhams, "We have been sending this homework assignment for years, and you’re the only one complaining about it.” The embattled mother said a school administrator later called. “(He said) ‘I think you guys should do a parental withdrawal for the child.’ I said, ‘I can’t. I can’t do that. We refuse to withdraw her,’” she recounted. “He said, ‘OK thank you for saying that,’ and continued on saying that, ‘Well, we’re going to proceed with an administration withdraw.’”

Now, their daughter is no longer enrolled at Victory Christian Academy, a ministry of Victory Baptist Church. The parents bemoaned that they did not get any explanation for the drastic move. “She did something right by telling mom and dad that she wasn’t comfortable with something, and now she’s no longer in school,” Christopher told WJAX, noting how he instructed his daughter that she was not going to do that part of the assignment.

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Jesse Latta, the pastor of Victory Baptist Church and president of the school, told WJAX that the assignment “was taken out of an online teacher resource and has been used in many schools.” He said in a statement, “When a parent contacted our teacher with a complaint, our teacher immediately sent out correspondence to all parents in the class to assure them that there were no bad intentions with this assignment and to clarify the guidelines. No additional concerns were presented to the teacher." Latta added, “While the assignment was completely innocent, out of an abundance of caution and for there to be no misunderstandings, our administration has removed this particular assignment for any future use. We value our children and their safety is our top priority. We will continue to serve the children and families in which the Lord has graciously allowed us to have a part in their lives.” However, the pastor did not address the "administrative withdrawal" of the student, per the report.

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Girl kicked out of Christian school after refusing to take picture in bathtub

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A second grader was kicked out of Victory Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida after her parents refused to participate in an assignment that involved taking a picture of their child “ doing reading homework in bathtub .”

When mother Misty Dunham saw the assignment from teacher Irene Castaneda, she wrote a note back to the teacher saying her 8-year-old daughter would do no such thing:

“I emailed the teacher ‘Hey, you may want to explain that. Send something out to the parents. Let them know what the intentions are.’ This just does not sound OK ,” Misty Dunham said. “She did send out a message saying, ‘you should be in pajamas, be in your uniform, have fun with it.’ But, it didn’t sit right.”

Actually, what Castaneda wrote (according to a police report) was “We have been sending this homework assignment home for years, and you’re the only one complaining about it. Just cover your child in pillows or pajamas then.”

As if a picture of a clothed or covered-up child was the exception to the rule .

What the hell were people sending her in the past? (Actually, that’s a valid question for another reason. The school’s Facebook page says Castaneda was hired in August . So how does she know no one else has complained about it?)

If the goal was to have a little fun with the reading homework by having Victory Christian Academy parents take a picture of their kids reading in the bathtub with clothes on and no running water , that should’ve been specified. It wasn’t. When Dunham spoke with other parents about the situation, they were equally flippant, saying things like “Just cover your child up with something.”

Everyone was treating Dunham like she was ruining the fun rather than admitting she had a point.

That’s when Dunham and her husband reached out to the school’s administration as well as the local sheriff’s office. They just wanted to document their concerns more than anything else. (It’s not like anyone was going to be charged with wrongdoing over this.) A police officer advised them not to complete that portion of the assignment.

The story should have just ended there. It was a poorly-explained assignment that rightly upset these parents, the teacher should’ve apologized and clarified, and everyone could have moved on.

But days later, the family received a call from an administrator urging them to withdraw their child from the school. When they refused to do that, he said the school would kick her out anyway :

“(He said) ‘I think you guys should do a parental withdrawal for the child.’ I said, ‘I can’t. I can’t do that. We refuse to withdraw her,’” Misty Dunham said. “He said, ‘OK thank you for saying that,’ and continued on saying that, ‘ Well, we’re going to proceed with an administration withdraw .’”

Pastor Jesse Latta later explained to Action News Jax’s Meghan Moriarty that the assignment was “innocent,” but “out of an abundance of caution and for there to be no misunderstandings, our administration has removed this particular assignment for any future use.”

That’s the right move. It actually shows the Dunhams had a legitimate complaint. So why the hell was their child kicked out of school?

The whole incident is a microcosm of Christianity’s treatment of sexual abuse: A girl bravely said she was uncomfortable with what an adult was doing, and the church’s response was to punish the girl, not the adult.

It would have been so easy to take care of this problem, but the school’s reaction was to double down on the assignment until the media attention made that impossible, then they took their wrath out on the family, leaving them scrambling to find a new school and forcing the child to make new friends after the school year has already begun.

The family is worse off because they enrolled their kid in a Christian school. Thank goodness they’re sharing their story publicly so everyone else can understand how messed up these kinds of schools can be.

Hemant Mehta

Hemant Mehta is the founder of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, podcast co-host, and author of multiple books about atheism. He can be reached at @HemantMehta. More by Hemant Mehta

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