Teacher Under Fire For Assignment Featuring Kyle Rittenhouse

In a perfect microcosm of today’s outrage culture, a Dallas, Texas high school is apologizing after a teacher listed Kyle Rittenhouse as an option for students to write about in an assignment that focused on the concept of a “hero for the modern age.”

Rittenhouse is, of course, facing murder charges in the deaths of two men in Kenosha, Wisconsin last month during violent protests, but the 17-year old’s attorneys have said that he was acting in self-defense. In fact, Rittenhouse wasn’t the only person connected to the Kenosha shootings who was listed by the teacher as a possible “hero.” Joseph Rosenbaum, who was killed by Rittenhouse after Rosenbaum began chasing him, was another option for students to choose from.

Actually, going through the list of possible heroes, virtually all of them are controversial to one degree or another. Mahatma Gandhi was on the list, even though statues of the leader of Indian independence from the United Kingdom have been vandalized in recent months and critics have issued calls for other statutes be removed from campuses and public squares. César Chávez, Malcolm X, George Floyd were the other potential “heroes” that students could choose to write about, and it’s not difficult to find critics of any of them, including George Floyd.