QUEENS, NY (PIX11)—
Takiema Reynold's five-year-old daughter sits at her homework table each night inside her Flushing, Queens home to pen her phonics assignments."She's learning how to spell play, park and school and stuff like that," said Reynolds.
But on Tuesday, she did a double-take when her kindergartener handed her an assignment from PS 201. The words 'gun' and 'rob' appeared on the sheet.
"She said mommy there was a gun and a man with money on my homework," said Reynolds.
Reynolds said those are two words she did not want in her child's vocabulary.
"For them to have that type of homework already, like really," she said.
Takiema said she complained to the school and then got an apology the next day from her child's teacher. The Department of Education explained that the assignment was not part of the curriculum and that the teacher had pulled it from an old workbook that she brought from another school.
Not all parents at PS 201 agreed with Takiema's reaction.
"It's not like we live in a place where we don't see guns," said Crystal McDowell, who has a son in Kindergarten.
"If, down the road, they have to write an essay about gun violence, they have to know how to spell the word gun," said Schevon Conner.
The school's principal will now look over all teacher homework assignments.
