French teacher assigned suicide note

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PARIS, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A French teacher has been suspended for assigning students to write a suicide note as a class project.

The teacher told the students, ages 13 and 14, to envision themselves at age 18, preparing to kill themselves, France 24 reported Monday.

"Your decision is definitive," the assignment, which outraged parents, said. "In a final surge you decide to put in words the reason behind your decision. In the style of a self-portrait, you describe the disgust you have for yourself. Your text will retrace certain events in your life at the origin of these feelings."

Parents wrote a joint letter to the school in the western region of Charente, expressing outrage over the assignment, which was given in October.

"We are outraged that this kind of subject can be assigned to children aged 13 and 14," it read. "We are not prone to questioning the school curriculum, but there are limits. ... What is the next subject -- 'How do you feel when you shoot up?'"