Answer to Teacher’s Poe Plot: Nevermore

The assignment that English teacher Andrew Phillips scribbled on his chalkboard at Covina High School stunned his students.

Last week, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Phillips asked his students to write a journal entry mapping out an assassination and explaining how they would get away with it.

He gave students who were offended by the idea an alternative assignment: They could describe eight to 10 motives for killing a person.

As word of Phillips’ assignment spread, parents began demanding his removal. On Tuesday, he was replaced by a substitute teacher.

Louis Pappas, assistant superintendent of personnel for the Covina-Valley Unified School District, refused to discuss the teacher’s job status or say how long he has been teaching. He said only that the assignment was not authorized, and that the teacher involved is no longer at Covina High.

Phillips could not be reached for comment.

Student reaction was mixed. During lunch break Tuesday afternoon, a few dozen gathered outside, some carrying signs that read “Down With Phillips” and others with signs that declared, “We Want Mr. Phillips Back.”

Michael Frazier, a parent who went to the school Tuesday to talk to the principal about the assignment, said: “It’s disturbing that a teacher would have kids writing about killing.”

The principal declined to comment, referring questions to Pappas, and the school board chairman did not return calls seeking comment. Phillips assigned the project after students read “The Pit and the Pendulum,” in which a man faces his demise by either falling into an abyss or being sliced by a pendulum.

He set ground rules for the fictional assassination plot: The subject marked for death couldn’t be associated with Covina High, and the details had to be kept secret.

Phillips gave the assignment to each of his English classes that day.

“I heard about it before I got to class,” said Eric Perez, 15. “All the students were talking about it. Then when I got to class, he put it on the board.”

Perez said many students were upset by the assignment, but he wasn’t. He spent the last few days coming up with his plan, but wouldn’t say whom he had chosen as his subject.

“He was a different kind of teacher,” Perez said. “He would sit down and discuss things with you. He just wanted to change things. He had the guts to do what no one else did.”