Boy Sues Math Teacher Who Assigned Summer Homework
Teen, Dad Say School Has No Authority Over Students During Summer
POSTED: 11:47 am EST January 20, 2005
MILWAUKEE -- A suburban Milwaukee teen and his dad are suing the boy's math teacher for assigning homework to be done over summer vacation.
They are seeking to bar homework assignments over the summer.
Peer Larson (pictured, left), a 17-year-old student at Whitnall High School, and his father, Bruce Larson of Hales Corners, contend in the suit which stemmed from an assignment in a math class that school officials have no legal authority to make students do homework over the summer because the state-required 180-day school year is over.
"It is poor public policy," Bruce Larson argued in the lawsuit filed last week in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. "These students are still children, yet they are subjected to increasing pressure to perform to ever-higher standards in numerous theaters. Come summer, they need a break."
The Larsons said they believe that, if teachers want to assign homework during the summer vacation, it should be voluntary and not factored into the student's grade without the student's consent.
Whitnall School Board member Mary Ann Lindberg said the board left the matter up to administrators.
"Sometimes those kinds of decisions are best made at the building level with the teachers and the principal and perhaps someone in administration, because they know best what they're trying to achieve," Lindberg said.
Whitnall School District Superintendent Karen Petric says the district tried to resolve the matter, but was unable to do so.
"I strongly believe the district acted appropriately and didn't do anything wrong," Petric said. "Court is not the place to solve it. It doesn't belong there."
Petric said the district would not have anything else to say on the matter because of concerns over student confidentiality.
