A parent claims his daughter's teacher was out of line for including these sentences about President Donald Trump on a vocabulary worsksheet she sent home. He penciled his response at the bottom of the worksheet. (Courtesy of Vincent Ungro)

Video edited by Steve Zaffarano

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Did a Staten Island teacher cross the line by inserting sentences on President Donald Trump in a vocabulary sheet she assigned as homework?

At least one parent of a student in her class seems to think so.

Vincent Ungro, an Annadale father and unabashed Trump supporter, said he was angered when his 11-year-old daughter, a sixth-grader at Paulo Intermediate School (I.S. 75), came home with a vocabulary assignment containing sentences he believes were disparaging to the president and inappropriate for the classroom.

The vocabulary sheet, drawn up by English teacher Adria Zawatsky, gave students sentences and had them fill in the blanks, choosing from a list of words that would complete the sentence and make sense.

The Trump sentences read: "President Trump speaks in a very superior and haughty manner, insulting many people. He needs to be more humble so that the American people respect and admire him." "Haughty" -- which the dictionary defines as "arrogant" or "disdainful" -- and "humble" -- defined as "modest" -- were the vocabulary words meant to be inserted.

Another sentence made reference to President Obama: "Barack Obama set a precedent (defined as "a first of several actions) "when he became the first African-American president."

Ungro had his daughter turn in the assignment, minus the three answers for the Trump and Obama sentences. Instead, Ungro circled the sentences and penciled a hand-written note to the teacher on the bottom of the sheet. "Please keep your political views to yourself and do not try to influence my daughter," he wrote.

Zawatsky -- who took 15 points off the assignment for the three missing Trump and Obama words -- responded to Ungro via written correspondence.

"Firstly, I do not believe I was expressing a political view at all on my vocabulary sheet. My reference to President Trump was about his personality traits rather than his ability as a president," Zawatsky wrote Ungro.

She pointed out that the media is "nonstop" on similar references.

"The media is nonstop on very similar references. This is considered freedom of speech and I feel I have the same right as they do.

"I am not in any way attempting to sway the minds of our students. I believe parents are much more instrumental in that department," she said.

Still, Ungro said the reference to Trump, followed by Obama, was inappropriate, and he believes the teacher should have avoided the political reference altogether, or at the least, offered an apology when it was called to her attention.

He complained to the school, and e-mailed the Advance, asking the newspaper to look into whether the teacher may have run afoul of policy.

"First, I don't think that putting your personal feelings about politics into a sixth-grader's homework is proper. There were at least a thousand sentences that she could have used besides disparaging our president," Ungro told the Advance.

"Her free speech or political views end when she walks through those school doors. Our children's best interest is the only thing she should be worried about," he said.

A Department of Education spokesman said Paulo Principal Kenneth Zapata planned to meet with Zawatsky to discuss whether she might have violated DOE policy.

"We have clear standards and regulations in place to ensure school staff maintain neutrality with respect to their political beliefs while in school," said DOE spokesman Michael Aciman.

He said the policy is spelled out in Chancellor's Regulation D-130, which "addresses political activity in school buildings, and sets clear standards for employee conduct with respect to their political beliefs."



