“The wrap-up and the facilitation, that’s the most important part of it,” Ms. Blair said. “I think with any diversity activity, it’s important to understand the audience as well as your environment.”

Ms. Hartman, who said her son has a learning disability, said that “no context was given” in class.

“It’s not that I was offended by the text,” she said. “I was offended that it wasn’t even explained properly to the students, which just furthers bias and tensions.”

Ms. Hartman asked her son about the exercise after discovering it amid his schoolwork early last week.

“He said, ‘Well, we had to rate who we would take — it was kind of like “Survivor,”’” she recalled. “So he honestly had no idea what the purpose of it was.”

Ms. Hartman contacted the school on Aug. 21 and received a voice mail message from the teacher in response, but she said the message only raised more questions. She tried unsuccessfully to reach the principal, she said, before deciding to post a photo of the exercise on Facebook. It caught the attention of other parents and a Cuyahoga Falls councilman, Adam Miller.

The councilman also posted the assignment on Facebook, stoking widespread outrage. He wrote that the project was “implanting prejudicial thoughts in these young impressionable minds.”

The assignment was not fostering a “culture of caring,” Councilman Miller wrote. “This is building a culture of animosity, antagonism & hostility!”