THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Jun 3, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
NY Post
New York Post
14 Sep 2023


NextImg:NY middle school teacher pulled from class over bizarre bomb shelter assignment handed out on 9/11 anniversary

A Long Island health teacher was pulled from the classroom this week over a bizarre assignment that asked middle school students to select who they would allow into a bomb shelter – with options including an infertile female doctor and a “50-year-old musician previously addicted to cocaine.”

The controversial questionnaire was passed out to fifth graders at Howard B. Mattlin Middle School in Plainview on Monday – the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks – and asked the students to imagine they had 20 minutes before a nuclear event and pick six out of 10 people to bring into their fallout shelter, Newsday reported.

“Your group must decide, unanimously, who will be brought in and who will be left out?” part of the instructions read, according to the outlet.

In addition to the woman doctor and the middle-aged musician, students were invited to decide if a drifter with limited skills, a pregnant teen, a retired sex worker or a police officer with pending charges would be worthy of saving for up to three months, News 12 reported.

The assignment was given to fifth graders at a Plainview middle school on Monday.
FOX5

A gay architect was also on the list.

“The teacher has been removed from the classroom and replaced with a certified substitute teacher,” principal Joseph Coladonato said in a letter to the community, Newsday reported Wednesday.

The teacher – who was identified by News12 as Mandy Bieder – will remain on leave until an investigation is completed, Coladonato stated.

Howard B. Matlin Middle School.

The teacher has since been removed from the classroom, officials said.
FOX5

Bieder did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for a comment on the incident Thursday. Public records indicate she may have previously worked at the North Bellmore School District.

In the letter to parents, Coladonato reiterated that the bomb shelter assignment was out of line with both the school and the district curriculum standards and was not age-appropriate.

“This assignment violated all of these criteria, and has no place in our classrooms,” the principal wrote. 

Howard B. Mattlin Middle School.

The assignment was given out on the 22-year anniversary of 9/11.
FOX5

“We condemn this type of material in the strongest possible terms.” 

Some in the suburban community found the assignment doubly offensive given that it was handed out on the anniversary of 9/11.

“I think it’s inappropriate. There’s no need to ask children who they’d let die in a situation and also to put their sexual preference, their charges against them,” Plainview resident Michael Salmon told News12.

The Mattlin principal decried the assignment in a letter to parents.

The Mattlin principal decried the assignment in a letter to parents.
FOX5

“They’re talking about weapons, they’re talking all these different types of things that shouldn’t be brought in the classroom,” he lamented.

Mattlin Middle School did not immediately reply to The Post’s request for comment.