Humorous academic superlatives are generally handed out in high school yearbooks. Maybe it’s best to keep it that way because a ”Catastrophe Award” for having the most homework excuses given to a third grader at Desert Springs Academy in Arizona is causing controversy.

Eight-year-old Cassandra Garcia was humiliated after being given the end-of-the-year superlative, according to her mother Christina Valdez.

“[The teacher] had announced it in front of all the class and the other children were laughing at her,” Valdez explained.

When Valdez confronted Cassandra’s teacher about the award, which came complete with a smily face and Ms. Plowman’s signature, Plowman told Valdez it was just a lighthearted joke.

But Valdez wasn’t laughing, and her complaints about the award have been picked up by the local media.

Education expert seem to agree with Valdez, and argue that a negative award shouldn’t be given out at that grade level. What do you think? Does Plowman owe Cassandra and her mother an apology? Or should Cassandra just have done her homework in the first place?

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