Death Panels 101? Chilling High School Assignment Makes Students Decide Who Lives and Who Dies

A group of high school freshman in Illinois were reportedly required to determine who would live and who would die in a chilling class assignment that school officials say was nothing more than a lesson in social bias. However, critics argue it sounded more like a lesson in death panels.

The assignment, reportedly administered by the sociology unit at St. Joseph-Ogden High School, involved a fictional group of 10 individuals who are all in desperate need of kidney dialysis. If they don’t get the treatment, “they will die,” the lesson reads.

“But there’s a problem,” Fox News’ Todd Starnes reports. “The local hospital only has enough machines to support six patients.”

The next part of the assignment is down-right haunting.

“That means four people are not going to live. You must decide from the information below which six will survive,” it states.

Credit: ChampionNews.net

Starnes says he reviewed one student’s worksheet and the student chose to save the doctor, lawyer, housewife, teacher, cop and Lutheran minister. That means everyone else involved in the fictional scenario died, including an ex-convict, a prostitute, college student and a disabled person.

While some critics, like writer Lenny Jarratt, who first reported on the assignment, say the lesson eerily resembles death panels, St. Joseph-Ogden High School Principal Brian Brooks told Starnes that it was just a lesson in social bias.

“The assignment has nothing to do with a ‘Death Panel,’” Brooks said, adding that the lesson was intended to teach students about social values and how people internalize biases based on professions, race and gender.

“The teacher’s purpose in the element of the assignment you are referring to is to get students emotionally involved in order to participate in the classroom discussion,” he added.

But Jarratt told Starnes that there are many other ways to teach students about social values and biases.

“Why would they go down that road — especially with freshmen in high school?” he asked.

Starnes also appeared skeptical, writing: “No matter what how the school tries to explain it, a group of young kids were deciding who got to live and who got a death sentence.”

To read Starnes’ full report, click here.

About Ask Marion

I am a babyboomer and empty nester who savors every moment of my past and believes that it is the responsibility of each of us in my generation and Americans in general to make sure that America is as good or even a better place for future generations as it was for us. So far... we haven't done very well!! Favorite Quotes: "The first 50 years are to build and acquire; the second 50 are to leave your legacy"; "Do something that scares you every day!"; "The journey in between what you once were and who you are becoming is where the dance of life really takes place". At age 62 I find myself fighting inoperable uterine Cancer and thanks to the man upstairs and the prayers from so many people including many of my readers from AskMarion and JustOneMorePet... I'm beating it. After losing our business because of the economy and factors related to the re-election of President Obama in 2012 followed by 16-mos of job hunting, my architect-trained husband is working as a trucker and has only been home approximately 5-days a month since I was diagnosed, which has made everything more difficult and often lonely... plus funds are tight. Our family medical deductible is 12K per year for two of us; thank you ObamaCare. But thanks to donations from so many of you, we are making ends meet as I go through treatment while taking care of my father-in-law who is suffering from late stage Alzheimer's and my mother-in-law who suffers from RA and onset dementia as well as hearing loss, for which there are no caretaker funds, as I continue the fight here online to inform and help restore our amazing country. And finally I need to thank a core group of family, friends, and readers... all at a distance, who check in with me regularly. Plus, I must thank my furkids who have not left my side through this fight. You can see them at JustOneMorePet.

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