A teacher in Switzerland has come in for considerable criticism after making an ill-advised decision to use suicide as a means to explain a physics theory to a class of 14 and 15-year-old students.
Using the Pont Bessiéres bridge in Lausanne - a spot well-known for the number of people who have taken their lives on it - the physics teacher posed a question which has sparked outrage among school officials and suicide prevention campaigners alike.
"Mr. Durant decided to end his life, specifically by jumping off of the Pont Bessières bridge," read the question. "He reaches the bottom with a speed of 77 kilometres per hour. How high must the bridge be?"
The teacher, whose name has not been released to the media, came under fire with many expressing disbelief at the morbid and insensitive nature of the question.
Commenting on the issue while speaking to Swiss news, school director Jean-François Borgeaud acknowledged the blunder, saying: "A tactless act had been committed."
Eager to placate those concerned by the issue, he continued: "We will ensure that something like this does not happen again in the future. We will meet with the students from his class to make sure that no one felt traumatised."
Weighing in the issue, Irina Inostroza of the Stop Suicide organisation, insisted schools should exercise sensitivity when it comes to the issue of suicide and suggested that the question could have caused considerable pain to a student who had lost a loved one to suicide.
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