No, Portage West Middle is Not Charging Kids for Screen Time

Parents in Portage were given a bit of a shock when a seemingly legitimate letter detailing funding issues for the school was sent home with students.

The letter, from Portage West Middle School, basically said that due to funding issues, children will now be charged $0.25 per hour of screen time during class with, "absolutely no exceptions." It goes on to say that students who did not pay the fee would not be able to participate in classroom activities and would therefore receive a zero. Read more below:

Obviously, this caused quite a stir among the parents of those attending Portage West Middle School and the letter began making the rounds on social media. As it turns out, the letter was NOT real but, part of a classroom assignment demonstrating taxation without representation, as the above Facebook post says.

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While their Facebook post was meant to calm the storm, people definitely had a couple of critical comments for Portage West Middle School:

With all due respect, I wish this assignment would be retired. I see it’s been revised since my kids were at West, which is definitely better than the old version. But in this house it caused a great deal of anxiety and I don’t think the learning objectives were achieved - Michele B.

Maybe y'all shouldn't use "official" letterhead and mark it with some indication that it's homework related? Ya know, before you make the nightly news and end up making public apologies? Just sayin'. - Brandon B.

Others praised the assignment saying things like,

Application of learning in the real world is extremely important and I admire this teacher for doing this assignment. Great job to teacher and class and glad to see everyone learned something. - Aubree S.

Regardless, it seems like a good lesson for everyone involved. Don't believe everything you read on the internet and...maybe, next time, give the parents a heads up before sending an assignment like this home with their child.