Ohio high school teacher suspended over morality test with questions on incest, animal cruelty

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated a relationship between IDRlabs.com and the Myers-Briggs Company. Neither Myers-Briggs nor any of its affiliates were involved in the publication of the test.

A teacher was suspended for a bizarre morality test she gave to students in her English language arts class at a Hilliard, Ohio, high school. The online quiz asked students for their opinions on an array of topics, including incest and animal cruelty.

Were they graded?

The test was reportedly graded and gave students scores for their “moral foundation” and "political leanings."

Sarah Gillam, 35, a teacher at Hilliard Bradley High School was placed on paid administration pending the outcome of an internal investigation, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

“Last night, we were made aware of a classroom activity that should never have taken place," the school district said in a statement. “We absolutely share the outrage of our parents and community.”

Some examples of the questions include:

• “Using both a condom and a pill, a brother and a sister decide that they want to sleep with each other — just once, to see what it would be like.”
• “Sarah’s dog has four puppies. She can only find a home for two of them, so she kills the other two with a stone to the head.”
• “A man kills a baby rabbit with a knife” on a live TV show.

"That’s just sick! Sick,” parent Chris Chaffin said after reading a scenario about a man who ordered "a custom-built sex doll designed to look just like his niece,” WTTE-TV reported.

Other questions were less controversial. One example is a boy slamming a door in his father’s face because he won’t let him attend a late-night party.

The test came from the website IDRlabs.com. Through the 36-question test, students were asked to make moral judgments by giving one of seven choices. A series of red thumbs up indicated a range of “Not OK” options, while a green thumbs up indicated levels of approval that were “OK.”

“What does the teacher need to know that information for?” Todd Sandberg, father of a tenth-grader, told the Columbus Dispatch. “The questions are so out of line for high school language arts.”

The district indicated it never approved the test, apologized to parents and students, and ordered the Gillam to stay off campus until further notice, according to the newspaper.

“You are directed to remain off school grounds unless you have permission from me,” Superintendent John Marschhausen wrote in the letter to Gillam obtained by the Columbus Dispatch. “You are directed not to have any contact with any students and/or any Hilliard City School staff.”