Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle (syndicated via Yahoo News):

Burning firewood does not produce oxygen.

That is an incontrovertible scientific fact, one of several a Fremont family spent six months fighting for, a battle they never thought they’d have to wage against their own school district.

The dispute stems from half-a-dozen test answers a teacher at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, CA marked as wrong:

One, which asked about the products and type of reaction related to firewood combustion, immediately stood out:

30. Which of the following statements is correct?

a. The cellulose and oxygen products indicate that this combustion reaction is endothermic.

b. The heat and light products indicate that this combustion reaction is exothermic.

c. The cellulose and oxygen products indicate that this combustion reaction is exothermic.

d. The heat and light products indicate that this combustion reaction is endothermic.

The teacher identified statement C as the correct answer, which would likely surprise anyone who has ever blown into a campfire to stoke the flames. Viswanathan’s son chose statement B. (Endothermic indicates a process that absorbs heat from its surroundings while exothermic is one that releases heat. However, that was not part of the dispute.)

The teacher argued in an email to the parents shared with the Chronicle that light is not always a product of the combustion process. While true, oxygen and cellulose never are. And notably, statement B does not state that light is always present.

The principal defended the teacher:

Principal Amy Perez stepped into the fray on Aug. 13, backing the teacher.

“After reviewing the matter, I can confirm that (the teacher’s) test questions and answer key align with the CA State Standards and the curriculum used in her classroom,” she wrote in a note to the parents.

As did the district:

“In regards to the exam question, the students observed a demonstration lab during class, accompanied by a lecture that clearly explained that combustion does not always produce light,” [district spokesman Barth] Paine said in an email to the Chronicle. “Our staff affirm that combustion does not always produce light.”

The district failed to acknowledge that the teacher’s answer violated scientific fact as well as the publisher’s answer key, which confirmed the correct answer was heat and light, since “combustion is a chemical reaction that typically releases energy in the form of heat and light, which makes it an exothermic process.”

You can’t even argue that “there’s not always light” makes the correct answer appear ambiguous, because it’s the only answer that could be right: the process is exothermic, releases heat, could produce light, and consumes oxygen and cellulose.

That the answer key has the correct answer, but the teacher, principal, and school district ignored it—and science—makes this even more outrageous.

Principal Perez again:

“While alternative perspectives (that) may be found online are respected, our grading reflects the instructional materials, standards, and assessment criteria provided to all students in (the teacher’s) class.”

“Alternative perspectives” on science is right up there on the Orwellian scale with “alternative facts.”

Via a friend whose daughter attends the school and knows this teacher. The daughter’s reaction to the teacher’s incompetence?

“Not surprised.”