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An Auckland high school is apologising after students were given an assignment in which they had to describe themselves as a murderer and detail how they would kill their victim and dispose of the body.
The controversial homework has upset the parents of at least one Howick College student, who want an explanation from the school.
The parents, who appeared on Campbell Live last night, said they refused to let their 14-year-old son carry out the assignment.
Principal Bill Dimery said the aim of the assignment was to get students reading the Roald Dahl book Lamb to the Slaughter, in which a woman kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, which she then serves to the investigating police officers for dinner.
Mr Dimery acknowledged that, in hindsight, setting such an assignment was probably poor judgment.
"The intention was to get kids thinking about people and their actions and their motivations and there was an assignment which was couched in terms of plotting your own murder.
"I can understand how a teacher might do that. Year 10 boys in particular can be hard to motivate or engage so you try and do things a bit interesting or innovative ... But, at the end of the day, hey we can't really have kids plotting murders."
Mr Dimery said the teacher had apologised to the boy and his family.
He understood the other students had completed the assignment.
