Let \( s \) represent the number of students in LaShawn's math class. Initially, LaShawn had 71 tokens. She gave away 3 tokens to each student in her class, which means she gave away a total of \( 3s \) tokens.
After giving away the tokens, she had 5 tokens remaining. We can write the following equation to represent this situation:
\[ 71 - 3s = 5 \]
Now, we can solve the equation for \( s \):
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Subtract 5 from both sides: \[ 71 - 5 = 3s \] \[ 66 = 3s \]
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Divide both sides by 3: \[ s = \frac{66}{3} \] \[ s = 22 \]
So, the number of students in LaShawn's math class is \( 22 \).
Answer: 22 students.