Parents meet to discuss controversial gym class game

A game played during gym class at a Mid-Missouri middle school is still causing controversy this weekend.

It happened last week in Fulton during Physical Education class.

Teachers asked students some questions that many parents found inappropriate.

On Saturday, more than a dozen parents met at Pizza Hut to discuss what they should do.

“Everyone was a little bit uncomfortable, a lot of people started to cry,” said Tenacity Murdie, a sixth grade student who played this game.

The students Tenacity told ABC 17 News were crying over what the teachers asked them.

It was a game called “Claim It.”

She said the teacher would ask the students a list of questions and if they identified with it they would step forward in front of the entire class.

“At first it was easy. The questions were like, ‘Are you a boy or a girl?’ That was fun,” said Murdie.

But the game quickly took a turn Tenacity said.

” ‘What’s your sexuality? Have you been raped or molested?’ And you really couldn’t stop participating then,” said Murdie.

She said if you stopped playing the game everyone would notice.

But now it’s the parents who are noticing something is wrong if this game is under state curriculum.

However, the school district is saying the game was in fact under state curriculum.

On March 24, the school district sent this to ABC 17 News:

“After gathering more information about the activity done in the PE class on Friday , it has been learned that the activity is called Claim It and was part of a day focused on Character Education. The activity is aligned to the Missouri State Standards for health and is also a part of the FMS Health Curriculum.

The activity is designed to be welcoming and inclusive so students don’t feel isolated and alone. It is never the intent to make any student feel unwelcome or uncomfortable.

Additionally, the activity was not mandatory and students were not penalized if they chose not to participate.”

“That to me raises bigger concerns about whether this district knows what the curriculum is. Whether it knows about student privacy rights and how it deals with parental concerns,” said Amanda Murdie, Tenacity’s mother.

It is clear though these concerned parents aren’t going to stop this fight.

They said they plan on making the school board “claim” this game rather brush it off.

“And if this is a part of the curriculum that’s a huge problem for all of us and how we trust our kids to be educated in this school district,” said Amanda Murdie.

“I would like them to learn from their mistake and to be more considerate of the feelings of the students,” said Tenacity.

The next school board meeting is April 15th.

That is when parents said they plan on getting on the board’s agenda to speak about this game.