Beginning Monday, seventh graders at Iberia Middle School will be charged 50 cents every time they go to the bathroom during class. They will be charged 10 cents for every assignment the teacher passes out, and they will be charged 50 cents every year to use the pencil sharpener.

Sound like an unreasonable request? Try a history lesson.

Cathy Lancon, a social studies teacher at IMS, sent home a letter Monday to the students' parents, citing financial problems as the incentive to begin taxing children for the use of paper and writing utensils.

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Amidst the outcry of parents, she said it was merely part of a lesson the class is studying about the American colonial period.

"It's just bringing home a point about how the colonists felt about being taxed without representation," Lancon said. "The students kept saying 'This is unfair,' but I said that this is something you're going to have to deal with, and that's what the king of England told the colonists."

In the 1760s, King George III of England was left with a looming debt from the French and Indian War and a country angry about steep taxes.

To reduce the debt and quell the uprisings at home, the king decided to impose strict taxes on the 13 colonies in what was known as the United States.

Among the numerous items taxed by England in the colonies were sugar, certain wines, silk, coffee, tea and paper.

Angered that a foreign country could impose taxes on its people, residents in the colonies vehemently protested and coined the phrase, "No taxation without representation."

Lancon's letter home to the parents Monday was scripted to resemble the request of the king to the colonists.

The letter read, "Team 7B has been experiencing some problems this year in terms

of financing... We strive to bring your child the best education possible, but often times that means having to buy various items for the many lessons we prepare. Starting on Monday, the following rules will apply to Team 7B."

A list of eight items to be taxed followed: assignments, 10 cents each; a lost assignment, 20 cents; pencils and pens, 25 cents each; hall/restroom passes, 50 cents per use; rental text book, 50 cents; pencil sharpener fee, 50 cents a year; and late assignments, 10 cents each.

Similar to the colonists, parents who were asked to sign the letter were upset.

"This a public school," said Lacey Faucheaux, who has a seventh-grade daughter at

IMS. "I can understand paying for field trips, but the school should be able to provide for this."

IMS Principal Michael Bonin approved the lesson, which he called an "excellent teaching tool."

He stressed, "This is not for real. This is just to get the kids to understand how the colonists felt."

Lancon said she also hoped the exercise would aid the students at test time.

Having sent this letter home for roughly six years, the social studies teacher said the parents' initial reactions vary from year to year - and this year she thanked the principal for fielding phone calls from concerned parents.