The Daily Caller has located the one man in America who claimed to be unaware that the novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” is a tour de porn — and sadism, and bondage.
The man, Philip Aidoo, is a high school teacher in Philadelphia. His blissful lack of knowledge landed him in trouble, though, after he bought the book for a ninth-grader to read at school.
The student’s mother, Maya Ladson, was very upset when she discovered the smutty romance tale in her son’s book bag, reports NBC10 Philadelphia.
“This is not okay to me,” Ladson told the station. “This is major.”
“It clearly states on the cover that the book is for mature audiences and has high sexual content,” the outraged mother added. “This was a 100-percent act of negligence. There should never be pornographic material purchased and distributed to a student by a school teacher.”
Officials at Eastern University Academy Charter School, Aidoo’s employer, are calling the incident an unfortunate mistake. Aidoo requested that students give him a list of books they wanted to read during an independent reading period, explained Yvonne Turner, the school’s chief operation officer.
Naturally, Ladson’s ninth-grade son asked for “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Aidoo then ordered it online.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Aidoo did not have an awareness of this popular book and ordered it with his own money,” Turner told NBC10 Philadelphia. She noted that Aidoo ordered a number of books for other students as well, none of which were explicitly erotic or filled with graphic, first-person, dominant-submissive sex scenes.
Color Ladson skeptical.
“I find it highly unlikely that a teacher who teaches reading and has a classroom for sustained silent reading period is unaware of contents of material that he’s giving to the students,” she said.
NBC10 seems to suggest that Aidoo teaches math, not reading. However, it’s not clear. Nor is it clear why he would buy books for students to read if he is a math teacher.
In any case, Aidoo ended up receiving a one-week suspension and was docked a week’s pay. Ladson doesn’t think the punishment is enough; she wants the teacher fired. However, Turner told NBC10 that the school’s board of trustees doesn’t believe Aidoo should lose his job.
The charter school also has instituted a new policy requiring official approval for any purchases made for individual students.
“Fifty Shades of Grey” by British author E.L. James has been massively successful since it was released in 2011. It has spent over 400 days in Amazon’s top 100 books and currently sits at #47 on that list.
Over 19,000 reviewers have bothered to rate the erotic novel on Amazon. About 8,300 have awarded it five stars (the highest rating) while nearly 5,400 have awarded just a single star (the lowest-possible rating).
Entertainment Weekly gave “Fifty Shades of Grey” a solid B+. Reviewer Lisa Schwarzbaum called it an “indefatigable sex story” and “yowza! pleasurable.”
Meanwhile, according to The Telegraph, controversial British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie has quipped that the book makes the young-adult vampire romance series “Twilight” “look like ‘War and Peace.'”
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