text: Tweet with a location 
   
   You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| A charter school located north of downtown is apologizing to parents and students after a teacher issued an assignment to students, asking them to describe the negative and positive aspects of slavery. 
   
   This is the paper Robert Livar's 8th grade son was given to fill out in history class Wednesday at great hearts Monte Vista Charter School. 
   
   "My wife picks him up from school and as soon as they pull out of the parking lot, he showed her the assignment and was pretty distraught by having to perform such a classroom assignment, and naturally my wife was upset, sent me the photo that went viral,” said concerned parent Robert Livar. 
   
   You can see his son wrote not applicable on the side labeled "positive aspects" and wrote a long list of "negative aspects". Robert says there is no excuse for this assignment. 
   
   "The assignment itself weighing the pros and cons of slave life and slave perspective quite honestly is just gross. There are no pros to one human being owning another." 
   
   The school responded, agreeing with parents, saying there is no debate about slavery-it is "immoral and a crime against humanity" In a statement from the school's superintendent they say: "our review of the situation found this incident to be limited to one teacher at just one campus. It was a clear mistake and we sincerely apologize for the insensitive nature of this offense." The school has placed the teacher on leave while they investigate. The history book that is used in class has also been removed and may be replaced. 
   
   "This is to be able to give school administrators and staff actionable items to implement change within their organizations, to make those organizations better, so this is a learning moment not just for our student and our family, but really this is a learning moment for the school,” said Livar. 
   
   Robert along with several parents met with the school Thursday. They say the school plans to have a response to their investigation by May 9th, and will determine if the teacher involved keeps his job. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Read the full statement from Great Hearts Monte Vista: 
   
   Last evening Great Hearts was made aware that one of our teachers at the Monte Vista North campus assigned homework that was very inappropriate and entirely inconsistent with Great Hearts philosophy and culture. In the 8th grade American History class students were asked to reflect on the differing sides of slavery. To be clear, there is no debate about slavery. It is immoral and a crime against humanity. 
   
   Our review of the situation found this incident to be limited to one teacher at just one campus. It was a clear mistake and we sincerely apologize for the insensitive nature of this offense. We want to thank the parents who voiced their concern and brought this to our attention. Please know Great Hearts is taking this seriously, including placing this teacher on leave while we have time to collect all the facts. 
   
   We are removing from classrooms and will conduct an audit of the American History textbook in use, "Prentice Hall Classics: A History of the United States". If we deem this textbook imprudent, we will permanently remove it and replace it with a history book that accurately reflects our values. 
   
   Finally, the headmaster and teachers at the Monte Vista North campus will spend time with the impacted students to explain the mistake and engage them in lessons that are more thoughtful about this period of American History. 
   
   We fully intend to make sure something like this does not happen again and will keep parents posted as we address this issue further. We have scheduled a follow up communication on May 9, 2018. ||||| ... 
   
   😉 👉🏼 Stop by our table 👈🏼 and get info about Great Hearts & meet Kevin our trick roper. 
   
   Our President of Great Hearts TX is a little tied up at the moment. ||||| Middle school students at Great Hearts Monte Vista in San Antonio were asked to weigh the "positive" and "negative" aspects of slavery for an assignment. 
   
   Great Hearts Monte Vista, a local charter school, confirmed an eighth-grade American History class was assigned a worksheet titled "The Life of Slaves: A Balanced View." The assignment was posted on social media Wednesday by a parent who asked to remain anonymous at this time. 
   
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   The post was shared with other parents at the school and has garnered growing concern from members of the community, including U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who asked the parent to send him a copy of the assignment. 
   
   Great Hearts Texas Superintendent Aaron Kindel addressed the issue in a statement on Thursday. He said the assignment was only used at the school's Monte Vista North campus and it "was very inappropriate and entirely inconsistent" with the school's "philosophy and culture." 
   
   "To be clear, there is no debate about slavery. It is immoral and a crime against humanity," Kindel wrote in the statement. "It was a clear mistake and we sincerely apologize for the insensitive nature of this offense." 
   
   Kindel said the teacher was placed on leave while "all the facts" surrounding the issue were assessed. The textbook for the course, "Prentice Hall Classics: A History of the United States," was removed from use and will be audited. 
   
   "If we deem this textbook imprudent, we will permanently remove it and replace it with a history book that accurately reflects our values," Kindel's statement reads. 
   
   In addition, headmasters and teachers will meet with students who were assigned the worksheet to explain the "mistake" and "engage them in lessons that are more thoughtful about this period." 
   
   "We fully intend to make sure something like this does not happen again and will keep parents posted as we address this issue further," the statement said. 
   
   Congressman Joaquin Castro tweeted that the teacher had worked from a Pearson textbook, but Pearson says the worksheet is not their product. 
   
   This is absolutely unacceptable. A @GreatHeartsTX charter school in San Antonio asked students to complete a “balanced view” assignment about slavery, requiring them to list the “positive aspects” of slave life. The teacher worked from a @pearson textbook. pic.twitter.com/mzEWty68tB — Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) April 19, 2018 
   
   We agree this is unacceptable. We have investigated this and determined that this worksheet is not our product. For more information, see https://t.co/cEQ3nhcM3h https://t.co/YiGAbmzJ33 — Pearson (@pearson) April 20, 2018 
   
   AlertMe ||||| Updated | Following complaints from teachers, parents and state lawmakers, an assignment that asked students to list the "positive aspects" of slavery has been removed from rotation at a Texas charter school, and the teacher who assigned the project has been placed on leave. 
   
   Titled "The Life of Slaves: A Balanced View," the worksheet featured two columns, in which students were told to list the "positive aspects" and "negative aspects" of living life as a slave. The homework, assigned in an eighth-grade American history class at Great Hearts Monte Vista, was pulled from the textbook, according to the school — a claim Pearson, its manufacturer, denies. 
   
   A parent on Wednesday posted a picture of the assignment, which made its way back to state lawmakers after a report from the San Antonio Express-News. Joaquin Castro, a Texas congressman, tweeted that it was "absolutely unacceptable," tagging Pearson in the tweet. Texas State Representative Diego Bernal said he had people calling him and complaining. Parents also flooded the school's Facebook page with angry comments about the assignment. 
   
   Great Hearts Texas Superintendent Aaron Kindel said in a Thursday statement that the school would be "conducting an audit" into the circumstances that led to the assignment, and said the textbook Prentice Hall Classics: A History of the United States would be pulled from school shelves. 
   
   "Our review of the situation found this incident to be limited to one teacher at just one campus," Kindel said. "It was a clear mistake, and we sincerely apologize for the insensitive nature of this offense. We want to thank the parents who voiced their concern and brought this to our attention. We are removing the textbook from all of our Texas academies." 
   
   Kindel's statement continued, "the headmaster and teachers at the Monte Vista North campus will spend time with the impacted students to explain the mistake and engage them in lessons that are more thoughtful about this period of American History." 
   
   In a statement to Newsweek, Pearson denied that it had anything to do with the worksheet, despite the school's claims. 
   
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   "The worksheet in question was not created by, endorsed, or encouraged in any way by Pearson," the statement read. "We do not support this point of view and strongly condemn the implication that there was any positive aspect to slavery." 
   
   It's not the first time Pearson, one of the largest manufacturers of school textbooks, has been accused of racial insensitivity. In 2017, a nursing student blasted the company for including stereotypical depictions of race in its book. 
   
   “Hispanics may believe that pain is a form of punishment and that suffering must be endured if they are to enter heaven," the book said. "Jews may be vocal and demanding of assistance.” 
   
   Pearson leaders apologized in a video tweet and removed the content from its books. 
   
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   Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images 
   
   Updated: This story has been updated with a statement from Pearson, which has since denied all involvement in the homework material. ||||| See more of Roberto Robotico Livar on Facebook
target: – When Roberto Livar's wife picked up their son Wednesday from Great Hearts Monte Vista charter school in San Antonio, Texas, the 8th-grader was "distraught" over an assignment in history class, Livar tells KABB. The worksheet he completed was entitled "The Life of Slaves: A Balanced View," per WMUR, with two empty columns for students to fill in: one labeled "Negative Aspects," the other "Positive Aspects" (Livar's son crammed all the cons in the former and wrote "N/A" in the latter). "What the hell is this revisionist history lesson trying to achieve here?!?," Livar wrote on Facebook, with a photo of the worksheet. "What positives??? This is unacceptable and gross." Among those in agreement: Rep. Joaquin Castro, who tweeted the assignment was "absolutely unacceptable" and noted the teacher was working from a text by publishing giant Pearson. Pearson, however, says in a statement to Newsweek the worksheet didn't come from its book, Prentice Hall Classics: A History of the United States, and that "we ... strongly condemn the implication that there was any positive aspect to slavery." On Facebook, the school addressed the matter, saying the assignment was "very inappropriate and entirely inconsistent with Great Hearts philosophy and culture." "To be clear, there is no debate about slavery," the statement added. "It is immoral and a crime against humanity." It went on to note that only this particular teacher had used the worksheet, that the teacher has been placed on leave during the fact-gathering process, and that the school would review the text and dump it if it's found to be "imprudent." A "follow-up communication" is set for May 9. (A New Jersey school held a mock slave auction.)