Controversy of the Day: NYC Middle School Kids Assigned to Write Suicide Letters

As part of a curriculum for Sue Monk Kidd's novel The Secret Life of Bees (movie trailer shown above), in which a young girl kills herself, New York City prep school English teacher Jessica Barrish had a class of middle school students channel the character and write a first-person suicide note from her perspective. The project asked students to give reasons justifying her actions and to explain how the character wanted her family to remember her. Though no parents complained to the teacher or the York Prep headmaster, several parents reached out to the New York Post calling the assignment "outrageous" and "inappropriate."