A Connecticut public school told eighth grade students in a sex education class to list their sexual likes and dislikes as pizza toppings as a way to teach consent, according to a report from Parents Defending Education (PDE).
The assignment titled “Pizza & Consent” at Enfield Public Schools in Enfield, Connecticut, used pizza as a metaphor for sex and compared “kissing” and “giving oral” to pizza toppings, according to PDE. The assignment also reportedly asked students to list their to sexual likes, dislikes and boundaries.
#DefendingEd Director of Outreach @esanzi talks about a Connecticut school sexuality lesson for 8th graders that uses pizza to teach consent. https://t.co/GUezHbhVdi
— Parents Defending Education (@DefendingEd) February 8, 2022
“We can use pizza as a metaphor for sex!” the assignment said. “When you order pizza with your friends, everyone checks in about each other’s preferences, right?”
The assignment compares sex to liking pepperoni or pineapple on your pizza or dietary restrictions such as being gluten-free, vegan or vegetarian.
“The same goes with sex,” the assignment said. “You have to check in with your partner(s) and ask for their preferences … Maybe your partner(s) only want to be touched a certain way, or maybe your partner(s) prefer to use certain language.”
Courtesy of Parents Defending Education
The assignment instructed the eight graders to explore their sex preferences by drawing and coloring their favorite type of pizza and “mirror these preferences in relation to sex!”
Examples provided included “Likes: Cheese = Kissing” and “Dislikes: Olives = Giving oral.”
Below the pizza drawing there appeared space to equate pizza likes and dislikes to sexual acts.
According to the assignment, students would then be instructed “to reflect and discuss how thoughts or feelings can be confusing or miscontrued, if we rely on non-verbal cues/communication alone” and learn that it is important to communicate preferences clearly to avoid misunderstanding and “identify when consent it either present or not.”
Courtesy of Parents Defending Education
The school district has removed the assignment from its website, according to the parent who provided the tip, PDE reported.
The district’s Health and Physical Education Coordinator, Brie Quartin, told a concerned parent that the assignment was the “incorrect version, as opposed to the revised version of this assignment,” which was mistakenly posted on the eighth grade curriculum page.
The assignment “was inadvertently used for instruction to grade 8 Health classes.” (RELATED: Over Half Of Americans Don’t Think Schools Need To Teach About The Ongoing Impact Of Slavery And Racism)
“I caught the error after our curriculum revision in June, but failed to post the intended version,” Quartin said. “I own that, and apologize for the error. The correct version of the assignment is for students to work in small groups to craft a pizza with toppings (no behaviors associated with said toppings) that would make everyone happy/comfortable using non-verbal communication only.”
But, parents have raised doubts and concerns about the mistake.
“I’m not sure how a teacher accidentally asks for the personal sexual preferences of 8th graders without any indication it is completely inappropriate to do such a thing?” one parent told PDE.
“These mistakes would not happen if we didn’t have the combination of poor quality control coupled with ideology. Good for these parents for speaking up,” Erika Sanzi, PDE’s Director of Outreach said.
“Fewer than 15 percent of 8th grade students have ever had sex yet this lesson, which was supposed to be about teaching consent, assumed they were already sexually active and asked them for highly inappropriate and personal information,” Sanzi said.
Enfield Public Schools did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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