Teacher Asked Students to Pen Suicide Notes

A French teacher is in hot water after giving her teenage students a twisted assignment: write a suicide note. She set quite the detailed scene for her 13- and 14-year-old students, framing the assignment, in part, as such:

• "You have just turned 18. You have decided to end your life. In a final impetus, you decide to give the reasons for your gesture. ... You will describe all the disgust you feel toward yourself. Your text will retrace several events at the origin of this feeling."

Needless to say, parents were outraged and sent a copy of the assignment to a local newspaper, reports the BBC. "We are not in the habit of questioning what happens at school," they told the paper, "but there are limits. What will be the next topic? 'How do you feel when you shoot up drugs?'" The teacher faces disciplinary action. (More weird news stories.)