Ohio teacher resigns after assigning students bizarre quiz

An Ohio high school language arts teacher resigned this week after a controversial quiz she gave her students provoked controversy. (iStock)

An Ohio high school teacher who allegedly assigned a bizarre quiz last week on the morality of incest and killing animals, resigned Monday amid swift parental backlash, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Sarah Gilliam, 35, who had been an English teacher at Hilliard Bradley High School since 2007, said her quiz was intended to be thought provoking, said Stacie Raterman, a district spokeswoman, cited by the Dispatch.

The quiz reportedly listed 36 scenarios in which the students were to respond on a seven-step scale ranging from “Not OK” to “OK.”

Among the bizarre questions on the quiz obtained by Columbus' FOX 28 were: “A man kills a baby rabbit with a knife on a live TV show,” and “A brother and sister decide they want to sleep with each other – just once, to see what it would be like, but use a condom and the pill."

The quiz’s website, idrlabs.com, contains other quizzes: one determines the quiz taker’s gender, while another rates the quiz taker's level of agreement with statements by President Donald Trump.

One of the student’s parents, Todd Sandberg, said he posted a description of Gilliam’s assignment on Facebook to inform other parents after his son described it to him. Sandberg told the Dispatch his post caused “a firestorm.”

Gilliam was placed on administrative leave Thursday following the school district’s investigation of the quiz. By Monday, the board said it had accepted Gilliam’s resignation.

“While the district’s approved curriculum and education materials encourage students to think critically, several items in this online quiz were simply inappropriate and inconsistent with established classroom resources,” read a statement from the Hilliard Board of Education.

Hilliard Bradley High School is located in Hilliard, Ohio, about 14 miles west of Columbus.