Originally published December 30, 2006 at 12:00 AM | Page modified December 30, 2006 at 1:08 AM

BCC teacher fights punishment for wording of math question

A Bellevue Community College instructor at the center of a national controversy last spring is appealing his suspension and will resume...

By Ashley Bach

Seattle Times Eastside bureau

A Bellevue Community College instructor at the center of a national controversy last spring is appealing his suspension and will resume mediation over the dispute in January.

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Peter Ratener wrote a math question that presented a scenario about a person named "Condoleezza" throwing a watermelon off a roof.

School officials said this demeaned U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and employed a racist caricature of blacks eating watermelons that dates to the 1800s. A student complained about the question last spring, and by April the issue had became a national story.

A BCC administrator recommended that Ratener be suspended for a week without pay, and he and the faculty union appealed the decision. He said the math question was a "careless error" but not politically or racially motivated.

He and the school went into a mediation session in August but did not reach an agreement over punishment, BCC spokesman Bob Adams said.

Ratener and his family spent fall quarter on vacation in France, as they usually do, and mediation is set to resume next month.

Ashley Bach: 206-464-2567 or abach@seattletimes.com

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