Children as young as 11 years old were given homework by their school in England asking them to define terms like ‘hardcore pornography,’ ‘breast ironing,’ and ‘sexting,’ among other explicit topics.
Students between the ages of 11 and 14 were given an assignment asking them to define the terms as part of their Personal, Social and Health Education class at the Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull, England, the Daily Mail reported.
A 34-year-old mother, who the Daily Mail referred to as “Mrs. Taylor,” said she was “fuming” after she saw her 11-year-old daughter’s homework.
“My daughter is still very much a child, we’ve still got magic elves, her bedroom is done in My Little Pony. She is very innocent and naive,” she said. “At 11 I was playing with Barbies. If they have seen it they can’t unsee it.” (RELATED: Review Of School Based Comprehensive Sex Education Shows Little Effectiveness, Finds Increased Sexual Activity)
Taylor was worried about what would have happened if her daughter had typed the terms into Google and seen explicit material. “They have been told to use Google and she would have searched it,” she told the Daily Mail. “I don’t think she would have coped well with it if she had seen it.”
UK: School gave children assignment where they had to define trans porn, hardcore porn and other explicit terms. Some pupils research these words online, leading them to be exposed to sexual material. https://t.co/LNiFSwmZOc
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) May 21, 2020
“I’m not one of these parents who will say I don’t want you to do sex education as some is good for the kids, there are some things that they need to know,” she said. “But not things that would destroy her mind.”
Leon Dagon, 25, said he was “appalled” when he saw his 13-year-old sister’s homework.
Dagon told the Daily Mail that it was lucky that he found the work, because “otherwise she would have typed this stuff into Google … I felt sick thinking she was going to go onto the computer to search it up.”
“I’m appalled. I get sex education is vital in anyone’s life but when there’s raw topics like this it’s something else,” he added, saying that he posted about the situation on Facebook to warn parents about what was going on.
Other parents and relatives were equally upset, and the school later apologized for what had happened.
“I am genuinely sorry if parents or students have unnecessarily researched any of these phrases and for any offense caused,” Academy principal Chay Bell said, claiming that the students were not asked or expected to search for the terms online.
“Students were not directed to research these topics themselves on the internet because all the answers to the questions students posed were contained in the teacher-produced materials we shared.”
“I have asked that any future materials of this nature have a clear statement ensuring students and their parents are aware of any potentially sensitive content and will ensure all materials are fully age-appropriate,” he added.
“Again, I am genuinely sorry for any upset caused at this difficult time.”
Many other sexual education programs have also been criticized for teaching inappropriate and controversial topics to students.
Last year, former sex educator Monica Cline told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Planned Parenthood pushes schools to teach programs that are “very explicit,” encouraging students to get abortions and “grooms them for promiscuity.”
Cline, who worked as a sexual education instructor trained by Planned Parenthood, said that while she was being trained her instructor said that “we have to approach this and look at your audience and realize that they’ve probably done anything and everything related to sex.”
In California, the Board of Education implemented a sex education program that showed students sexually explicit content beginning as early as kindergarten. The bill required schools to teach sex ed classes, even if parents were not informed. The bill does not allow schools to teach abstinence-only education or religious doctrine.