New Bedford Schools attacked by thousands over claims of 7th grade sexual homework assignment
New Bedford Public Schools is taking an insane amount of hate on social media when, in fact, it appears they are innocent in this situation. A woman made a post in the Facebook group named “Massachusetts Informed Parents” sharing a picture of a homework assignment given to her 7th grade daughter.
This assignment contains bizarre tasks such as “Do an internet search on phrases like ‘songs about sex.'” She stated “I am in the New Bedford district and the school is a low income tuition free, non-sectorian middle school.”
An account with over 2.8 million followers named “Libs of Tik Tok” posted a photo of the assignment on Twitter while tagging New Bedford Public Schools, resulting in thousands of people across the country to begin attacking our city’s school system.
Middle school in @NBPublicSchools gave students an assignment to do an internet search for “songs about s*x” and songs about being LGBTQ.
Another ad for homeschooling.
Source: @Nicoletta0602 pic.twitter.com/cfIXiVsaDt
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 22, 2024
The massive influx of people tagging and commenting New Bedford Public Schools page caused them to temporarily close down their acoount.
UPDATE: @nbpublicschools just deleted their account. They need to answer why they’re giving kids s*x research assignments! pic.twitter.com/EIodrKp0CN
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 22, 2024
Once New Bedford Public Schools reactivated their account, they posted this message:
A post circulating today about middle school students' assignments re. certain song lyrics has been investigated by NBPS and found to be FALSE. No such assignment exists or been given to students; nor does it exist in any curriculum followed by NBPS.
— New Bedford Public Schools (@NBPublicSchools) January 22, 2024
The City of New Bedford then chimed in highlighting the fact that the original post has since been updated to clarify that the school is private.
Hi all: We looked into this and it did NOT come from the NBPublicSchools. Also, the orig poster has updated to say it was a private school. There are several private schools in NB and we have no control over any aspect of them. Pls stop messaging NBPS. Have a good day everyone. pic.twitter.com/85wsAY9Nvy
— City of New Bedford (@NewBedford_MA) January 22, 2024
We have reached out to the parent asking her the name of the school and if she has any further proof of these claims. We are currently waiting for a response.