I am pleased to say that several brave students refused to do the assignment. One of my daughter's English teachers brought poems for the students to read and discuss in class. Some were written by his acquaintances and most dealt with death. His favorite was a poem written by a former student about suicide. My daughter had just lost her grandmother at the time and left the classroom quite upset.
Thanatology is the study or science of the experience of dying and bereavement.
When I saw her class notes I was beyond angry. Per the class discussion, she was to decide who the pallbearers would be at her funeral and describe how she would look in her shroud. I demanded a meeting with the school to arrange for an alternative assignment. During a three-hour assembly, she talked about teens who have committed suicide, and read poems and stories about suicide and death. We'll try to print at least one per month.