ATLANTA -- The suburban Atlanta teacher who resigned after an investigation found students were given math homework with word problems about slavery has apologized.

Former Beaver Ridge Elementary School teacher Luis Rivera said some of the questions he wrote were in “poor taste,” according to a report Thursday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a statement to Gwinnett County school officials, obtained by the Atlanta newspaper, Rivera said he did not write the homework to be malicious or offensive.

Read the original story on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“I wrote poorly written questions in an attempt to enhance student achievement. I have brought shame to my family, and my school. For that, I cannot apologize enough,” he said.

One math problem read: "Each tree has 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" Another was: "If Frederick got two beatings each day, how many beatings did he get in one week?"

Rivera resigned from his $39,170-a-year job on Jan. 13.

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