Polish teacher asked students to 'murder' migrants in physics question
A Polish teacher posed an insensitive physics question to his 14-year-old students, asking them how many Syrian refugees would have to be pushed off a raft for it to stay afloat.
The question read: "Four refugees from Syria are to reach Greece on a raft which is 1m x 2m x 20cm and 800kg/m2. Calculate how many refugees you need to push off the raft for them to reach their goal if each of them weighs 60kg."
A parent of one of the students made a complaint to the school after seeing the question.
The teacher, Mr Grzegorz Nowik, claimed it was a joke and that he had done so to keep the students' attention, reported CNN.
"If I spoke about the lift of a block submerged in water, how many people would I engage? Maybe two," he said.
"After the lesson I realised this was not the best idea. I told the students it was only a joke, that in no way does it portray my attitude toward refugees."
The private school in Białystok city has given Mr Nowik a warning, reported Quartz.
Said the school's deputy director Elzbieta Stasiewicz: "We will terminate our cooperation immediately if it happens again."
Ms Anna Mierzynska, of the Normal Bialystock Association, a group that promotes acceptance of multiculturalism, said: "This test question has some kind of subtext, not expressed directly – how many people must die so that anyone can survive.
"This is a question about murdering."
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