Posted on 01/15/2020 7:37:17 PM PST by yesthatjallen
A question about rape ends up on a biology homework assignment for ninth graders at a Houston-area high school.
Klein Independent School District confirms a teacher at Klein Collins High School sent home what the district calls an “inappropriate homework question” on a take-home assignment Friday.
The question was part of a biology DNA assignment and reads:
“Suzy was assaulted in an alley and is a victim of rape. The police collected a sample of sperm that was left at the crime scene and now have three suspects in custody. Which of the suspects rape (sic) Suzy?”
Parents along with students at Klein Collins ranged between surprised, confused and outraged.
“It’s upsetting and I know girls this age, just the thought ... they know that rape is forced non-consensual sex and that upsets them,” said Cookie VonHaven, who has a daughter in 10th grade. “That’s why I can’t fathom a teacher putting that on a test.”
Dana Duplantier has a ninth-grader but was unaware of whether he had received the assignment and question.
“Wouldn’t (the teacher) have to get that approved by the school board or teachers or something to put that in there,” Duplantier asked.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at click2houston.com ...
To kill a mockingbird was required in my 9th grade.
No, they can’t. But this isn’t the type of sequencing they do on crime dna.
They don’t have an actual Thomas Jefferson dna sample to match with so they have to use a known descendant proxy sample, using the Y chromosome because that’s the only one they can be sure was absolutely passed down.
But all the other Jefferson men who have the same grandfather have the same Y, so why it shows that some man in that family is the father it doesn’t prove which one it was. For that they would need a direct sample to do a full genome sequencing and match.
They will never get permission to dig up Thomas Jefferson.
Well, the last paragraph contains the point I am trying to make.
The concept is the same. Who did it? and the answer is analogous. We don’t know because of the shared Y chromosome. You claim it’s different. OK, but I am not seeing the difference.
It’s different because in crime dna testing they aren’t using proxy dna and they aren’t comparing just the Y chromosome.
If they dug Thomas and Easton up and did a direct sample match they would know absolutely if there was a paternal relationship rather than just a familial relationship because they would sequence and match all the chromosomes not just the Y.
BobL,
Where are you in TX? Where are your ‘wonderful’ schools?
ok... but anyway, back to the test question, i am wondering and i get the impression that STR analysis is performed on a per-chromosome basis. Your suggestion that it is different might be true. In the school test, the students taking the test are not given information whether it is a single chromosome or multiple chromosome analysis (if the latter exists at all). Personally I would be inclined to presume it is a single chromosome STR, given no further info in the test question itself. Your argument seems to imply that more than the Y chromosome can be (is?) used in criminal forensic procedures. So, a single chromosome STR may be regarded as insufficient to prove identity. If all this is true then maybe the test question itself is flawed since the results pictured would then be inconclusive. (I might be confused...)
At least the question wasn’t “Suzy was raped in an alley, which black guy did it?”
“Where are you in TX? Where are your ‘wonderful’ schools?”
It’s a rationalization for conservatives. Schools are always WONDERFUL where they live, but suck everywhere else. Otherwise, how could they live with themselves sending their kids to those schools.
I like to pick on these stories because there’s a lot of us who think bad schools only exist in ‘blue areas’. Maybe that was true (2 generations ago), but not now!
It is industry standard. http://www.forensicdnacenter.com/dna-str.html
Beginning in 1996, the FBI Laboratory launched a nationwide forensic science effort to establish core STR loci for inclusion within the national database known as CODIS (Combined DNA Index System). The 13 CODIS loci are CSF1PO, FGA, TH01, TPOX, VWA, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51 and D21S11. These loci are nationally and internationally recognized as the standard for human identification.
If you look at a full screen shot of the test answer all the samples have 13 bars, clearly indicating a standard 13 loci test was used.
I truly don’t get the outrage. This is parents being stupid in supporting snowflake culture. I suppose they could have used a generic unspecified crime, which would have been less vulgar and sensational.
This question is so easy it’s like free bonus points for remembering to write your name at the top of the page. Essentially picture matching which doesn’t actually require any understanding of the underlying science. Which barcode matches the sample barcode.
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