Albemarle County Public Schools’ (ACPS) sex-ed video scandal now has escalated into the legal realm while again attracting a nation-wide audience.

As investigated and documented by The Schilling Show, twenty-eight ninth-grade girls at Western Albemarle High School (WAHS) intentionally were exposed to graphic, how-to sex videos during a “Family Life” class. These were presented to the children by Sexual Assault Resource Agency (SARA) representative, Lexie Huston, with the blessing of WAHS physical education department head, Frank Lawson (now on administrative leave).

Weeks after the original incident—and following a national social media firestorm—Albemarle County’s largely impotent School Board, finally terminated ACPS’ relationship with SARA. However, to date no public statement has been issued by the Board.

Unsurprisingly, soon-to-retire Albemarle County School Superintendent, Pam Moran (along with the entire ACPS administration) has been stone silent on the issue, deferring instead at every turn to schools’ spokesperson, Phil Giaramita.

Frustrated parents of the abused WAHS girls—tired of waiting for substantive action on and public acknowledgement of their plight—now have obtained legal representation.

In an April 25 letter to Superintendent Moran and copied to the Albemarle County School Board, Florida-based Liberty Counsel (LC) and their representing attorney, Mary E. McAlister, set forth the organization’s concerns:

Re: Videos describing cunnilingus, fellatio and anal penetration in violation of Virginia Code §§ 18.2-370; 18.2-371; 18.2-376; § 18.2-374.4, shown to ninth grade girls in the absence of parental permission

and

As you know, during “Family Life Education” classes on April 13, 2018, two classes of girls were shown two different YouTube videos describing sex acts in graphic detail. Both videos contained crude colloquial terms for genitalia. One video, entitled “Male Pleasure!” contained discussion and images of how to provide sexual pleasure to males. The video contains too many offensive statements and images to describe here. For the sake of brevity, the video discusses oral and anal sodomy, and the use of artificial devices. The video contains images of erect circumcised and uncircumcised penises, with highlighted “zones.” The video demonstrates masturbation techniques, and encouraged the girls to “lick,” “suck,” or “put a vibrator to” their partners’ “balls.” The video encouraged the girls to place their fingers or objects in their partners’ rectums, in order to stimulate the prostate. The other video, entitled “How to Help Her Orgasm,” also went into graphic detail regarding female sexual pleasure. The videos are sponsored by and contain multiple advertisements for the website of a seller of pornography and sex toys.

Attorney McAlister, then turns attention to Lexie Huston, the SARA employee who presented obscene materials to WAHS ninth-grade girls:

I further understand that the videos were presented by Lexie Huston, who is an employee of the Charlottesville-based organization “Sexual Assault Resource Agency ” (“SARA”) since 2016. Ms. Huston publicly opposes abstinence education  (screenshot), claiming it is “ineffectual and unethical.” A basic background check would have revealed this. Her public position against Abstinence calls into question whether her personal biases permit her to credibly teach the concept. Indeed, her actions have shown she cannot.

McAlister continues by describing the ACPS legal breach of parental rights:

Beyond the rights of the girls, ACPS has also violated the rights of their parents. The law is clear that parents, not agents of the state like teachers, and not outside radical groups, have the right to direct the upbringing and associations of their children. The law presumes that parents possess what a child lacks in maturity, experience, and capacity for judgment required for making life’s difficult decisions, not activist school employees. “The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children. . . The child is not the mere creature of the State;” Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925). (Emphasis added). “The history and culture of Western civilization reflect a strong tradition of parental concern for the nurture and upbringing of their children. This primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition.” Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972). (Emphasis added).

Multiple felonies—including taking indecent liberties with children, advertising obscene items, and displaying “grooming” materials to a child—may have been perpetrated against the WAHS girls, as detailed by McAlister:

Virginia Code § 18.2-370 makes it a felony for any person to take indecent liberties with children; and provides that any “person 18 years of age or over, who, with lascivious intent, knowingly and intentionally commits any of the following acts with any child under the age of 15 years is guilty of a Class 5 felony:” “(4) Propose to such child the performance of an act of sexual intercourse, anal intercourse, cunnilingus, [or] fellatio…” The videos proposed to the children that they engage in all of the above. Since the video presentation was by a “person in custodial or supervisory relationship,” a.k.a, Ms. Huston and any other adults in the room, the offense should be upgraded to a Class 6 felony. See § 18.2-370.1.

and

Virginia Code § 18.2-376 prohibits “Advertising, etc., obscene items, exhibitions or performances,” making it “unlawful for any person knowingly to prepare, print, publish, or circulate, or cause to be prepared, printed, published or circulated, any notice or advertisement of any obscene item proscribed in §18.2-373 , or of any obscene performance or exhibition proscribed in §18.2-375 , stating or indicating where such obscene item, exhibition, or performance may be purchased, obtained, seen or heard. A purveyor of obscene items and performances was the website sponsor of the videos, and the video directed the students to that website multiple times.

and

Finally, Virginia Code § 18.2-374.4 prohibits the “Display of child pornography or grooming video or materials to a child:”

  1. Any person 18 years of age or older who displays child pornography or a grooming video or materials to a child under 13 years of age with the intent to entice, solicit, or encourage the child to engage in the fondling of the sexual or genital parts of another or the fondling of his sexual or genital parts by another, sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, anilingus, anal intercourse, or object sexual penetration is guilty of a Class 6 felony.
  2. “Grooming video or materials” means a cartoon, animation, image, or series of images depicting a child engaged in the fondling of the sexual or genital parts of another or the fondling of his sexual or genital parts by another, masturbation, sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, anilingus, anal intercourse, or object sexual penetration.

A previously unreleased SARA sex-stimulation curriculum outline also was used during the WAHS classroom presentations.

LC and McAlister took issue with SARA’s “sex positive” curriculum on several counts:

In addition to the egregious videos, the SARA “Sex Positivity” curriculum contain role-play activities which are coercive; expose children to the sexual beliefs of others which may be far removed from their own; require them to publicly debate and defend their personal and family’s beliefs about “boundaries,” and require them to take part in activities that violate their religious beliefs, upon penalty of social ostracism. Among other things, the children are instructed to write their own personal boundaries on paper; the papers are collected; and then “anonymously” redistributed to the class.

and

On page 10 of the curriculum, there is the “Activity: Keeping Consent Sexy Brainstorm (15 Minutes).”

  1. Have students get a partner. Within their groups, have them brainstorm different ways to talk to their partners about consent that would keep it “sexy.”

  2. Have groups share as they are willing.

  3. Consent doesn’t have to be a rigid and awkward conversation. Some sex is completely rooted in consent conversations. It can be built into the “moment.”

McAlister concludes:

In sum, the SARA “Sex Positivity” curriculum is completely non-aligned to the ACPS Family Life Curriculum, and the promotion of Abstinence. SARA treats “consent” as the sine qua non of sexual activity. Nowhere in the document are the words “legal,” “moral,” “faith,” or “parents.” The word “sex” or derivatives appears more than 49 times in the document, including the sentence “I’d like to have sex tonight, would you?” as well as the statement the statement that “There is no ‘right way’ to have sex – as long as it’s consensual and safe. Sex can mean different things for different people.”

As a condition of settlement, Liberty Counsel requests the following:

Therefore, on behalf of Liberty Counsel’s client parents, please confirm to Liberty Counsel in writing by May 1, 2018, as follows:

  1. Charlottesville “Sexual Assault Resource Agency” is indeed no longer affiliated with nor will any of its affiliates or employees, including Lexie Huston, present material at any time in the future for ACPS “Family Life Education” courses.

  2. SARA’s “Sex Positivity” curriculum (attached) will no longer be used in any fashion by ACPS.

  3. Future District FLE contractors or presenters will be required to scrupulously adhere to the FLE standards, and will not publicly oppose Abstinence.

  4. ALL FLE materials will be offered for review by parents beforehand, so that the parents can have the information necessary to decide whether to opt out.

  5. NO materials will be shown or provided to students as part of FLE or similar sexuality based instruction that have not been first made available for review by parents with the opportunity for parents to opt their children out of the instruction.

 

While Superintendent Moran and her Albemarle County School Board fiddle, Western Albemarle High School (and the entire division) is burning. The ostrich approach employed by ACPS at every level has failed miserably, and instead of quenching it has inflamed.

The abused WAHS girls and their families deserve respect, reassurance, and sincere public apology. Will Superintendent Pam Moran and her schools rise to the occasion or will the ostrich suffocate under the burden of its own prideful arrogance?

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31 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks for reporting on this ghastly business, Rob. Albemarle County is sure giving San Francisco a run for the title of who is most depraved.

    This is what comes of having a bunch of amoral liberals run the local government and an almost all Democrat-run School Board.

    I wonder what the lone principled School Board member, Jason Buyaki, thought about this destruction of county school children’s innocence?

    Appropriate new slogan for ACPS: “We teach readin’, writin’ and fornicatin’!”

  3. This is a wake up call to all parents with children in the Albemarle School system.

    I will no longer be a stranger to the staff at my daughter’s school, they will frequently see me coming, to find out – the latest FLE instructions, scheduled class speakers, etc …

    Consider me your number one sheepdog now, or ankle biter … I will now be involved at the ACSB meetings and my school.

    We didn’t start this, but we can end it. Thanks for waking me up!

  4. This is an utter and complete failure of adult leadership on ALL levels with everyone involved in this debacle.
    It is a FAILURE of leadership within the ACPS. Sure, placing Frank Lawson on administrative leave is the very least we should expect. Some would submit that he simply failed to preview the material, but that is not indicative of a lack of a moral compass. Excuse me! We are forced through the powers of the state to fund this system of education, AS WELL AS entrust our children to it! The fact that Lawson signed off on this, pell-mell, thereby failing to be the gatekeeper he is paid by our tax money to be, failing to fulfill his responsibility, indeed displays his moral compass.
    The Sexual Assualt Resource Agency, by its very name and definition of purpose, FAILED. Every person in authority, who enabled this to even be considered by ACPS for viewing, FAILED.
    The teachers in the classroom, when after the first twenty seconds of the presentations, did not deactivate the projection, FAILED. What has been seen, cannot be unseen. What has been heard, cannot be unheard. One cannot put the toothpaste back into the tube after it has been expelled. One can only endeavor to clean up the mess left behind. To be sure, there is a considerable mess here to be cleaned up.
    The military provides an excellent template for what should transpire now. One need only recount how many admirals, generals, captains, and majors were released from command, due to the incomprehensible and inexcusable actions of those whom they commanded. Such is the case here.
    ACPS has had too many incidents already of teachers who quietly disappear into the night due to sexual malfeasance. Schools whose computers, despite the propaganda otherwise, are accessing porn sites, and sexual molestation of students by other students, that get swept under the rug.
    Simply put-THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS

  5. Hank, you’re spot on. This was engineered for a long time through the ACPS relationship with SARA. In essence, the educators paid by the taxpayers abrogated their responsibility to teach to SARA, who handed it to some MTV/YouTube internet celebrity. This is indeed the tip of the iceberg.

    And whose fingerprints are on this on behalf of SARA? Sheri Iachetta-Owen, forced to leave the public sector after her fraud was illuminated…a public sector taker who spent years using her arrogance gene to maximum benefit. Then she goes to the next bastion of “Other People’s Money”: the nonprofit sector.

    So, ACPS, who maintains an “in loco parentis” rule over its students, handed off sex materials to its children using an outside party. This is no different than if I asked Joe the Shrink from the local bar to come over to my house and show sex videos to my 13-year-old daughter. I’d likely be charged if such an act were reported.

    Rob S. uncovers the most ghastly sides of local government, but the people keep goose-stepping to their liberal masters.

  6. SARA had been sending the schools acceptable material for years. Did you ever not check on someone because they’d earned your trust, Hank, and then find out later they didn’t deserve it that time? It’s OK. That doesn’t indicate your moral compass is off. On the other hand, you like the rest of us, being a sinner, have done things for which there was “NO EXCUSE.” But God is always willing and eager to forgive.

    Forbes: Name one person who “asked” SARA to show “sex videos” to those kids. But don’t be surprised if they sue you for libel and win.

  7. Greetings all, I came across this article (ORGASM ED ORAL, ANAL, AND SEX TOYS IN 9TH GRADE GIRLS’ ‘FAMILY LIFE’ CLASS – Published on 24 April, 2018/barbwire.com) and was deeply saddened by what manner of evil has been allowed in to the lives of the ones dearest to us. I hear so much talk and not enough action! All this political garbage is a waste! Hears the bottom line; if your child (anyone’s) was assaulted on the street by a perpetrator… you would not even hesitate to throw them in jail. Why are we lolly gagging around and wasting time? Why!? Have we become so stupid!

  8. Ken, you make quite a leap saying “SARA had been sending the schools acceptable material for years,” as though this was just a momentary lapse of reason on…I want to be inclusive here…SARA for accepting this YouTube joker’s material to begin with, a curriculum director at the district level, the Phys Ed chair who sent the approval email and, finally, the teacher who watched like a perfect useful idiot as this program ran, minute-by-minute, in front of 13- and 14-year old girls.

    “Ask” is a matter of semantics. So, you’re telling me, that receiving sexual materials from someone and then showing them to children is somehow acceptable because the presenter of those videos to the kids did not actually ask for them? Yet they took them into possession, set up the apparatus to show them, congregated the children to view them without giving any options to opt-out, and never stopped them when they could see the contents? Ken, by bringing the YouTube celebrity into the classroom at the urging of SARA, the educators were, in fact, facilitating the showing.

    Someone asked SARA to provide sex ed materials, and someone approved their presentation. If the schools provided a drawn out and convoluted chain of solicitation and procurement to intentionally insulate anyone in the ACPS from liability, kudos to their legal team. They may have better representation than Bill Cosby, but they’re way more ethically and morally reprehensible.

  9. Forbes, if I was to assume you were arguing in good faith, I would have to conclude from your first paragraph that you think an agency which has recently done something bad couldn’t possibly have done something good in the past. I would have to conclude from your second paragraph that in addition to lacking basic logical skills as demonstrated in your first paragraph, you lack basic reading comprehension skills.

    What I actually do believe is that you’re playing dumb and putting words in my mouth because you can’t do what I challenged you to do, name one person who “asked” SARA to show “sex videos” to those kids. The way some of you people speak, you’re also equating giving kids information inappropriate for their ages, as bad as that is, to physically assaulting them. So much for clear thinking. That’s the thing with you guys: you can’t just stick with the facts even when the facts are enough to hang your opponents. You have to hyperventilate and try to completely destroy their reputations.

  10. Ken, your argument is pathetic. You realize this could easily result in all kinds of charges. I don’t give a damn if it’s a first occasion or the 45th. Since when does a sexual assault organization need to be involved in the high school education of 13 and 14 year old kids? Bring in the Albemarle Police Department for God’s sake. It’s bullshit and rotten to the core. If it were my daughter I would sue the hell out of them. You notice that SARA is now ground into the dust under the bus don’t you. You are defending the indefensible in this instance. This is a biased statement I know will raise your BP, but it’s about time that conservative parents strongly consider yanking their children out of the liberal indoctrination system we used to call public education. If a school system is overwhelmingly right do the same thing but I question how many of those are left. It’s a bloody effing disgrace. I do believe most educators are wonderful people with the best of intentions, but when they overwhelmingly support one political ideology, we got ourselves a problem.

    This link explains it precisely. Follow the money and the unions!
    https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=L1300

  11. Al, parents have every right to homeschool their kids, and more power to them. I have good friends who homeschooled theirs.

    What good would it do to charge SARA? This incident has provoked so much outcry that it’s extremely unlikely a similar incident will happen again. Ideally then, people would forgive and move on. But unfortunately, a lot of the people who are the most angry – and who are also the most outspoken in defending Christianity and castigating non-Christians – are not big on forgiving as they have been forgiven. What’s the goal, to express wrath or to show God’s love and mercy?

    You ask why SARA needs to be involved in high school education to 13 and 14-year-olds. The key word there is “education.” They weren’t teaching reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic; they were teaching kids how to say “no,” and giving them a place to go when “no” didn’t work. A lot of kids don’t get that kind of instruction from their parents, and a lot of kids for one reason or another wouldn’t tell their parents if they were assaulted. SARA served them in a very important and compassionate way other adults in their lives didn’t or couldn’t. What’s the goal, to help those kids or punish SARA?

  12. Ken is arguing semantics…the issue of “did the educators ‘ask’ to have the kids in their custody to view obscene materials” versus “did the educators admit obscene materials into the classroom for children to view.” And, my friend, your logic is flawed; I never said SARA had never done anything good in the past, did I? I said that an organization like SARA that had sent such abhorrent material to 13-year-old girls did not do it because they made an error or had a lapse of judgment. It knew what is was doing. THAT is what one would take from my first paragraph.

    I also question any organization that would hire Iachetta on the heels of her huge ethics lapses when she was on the teet of the taxpayer. But that’s another angle of SARA for another say.

    Now, you also make a logical error with the term “physically assaulting.” I did not equate anything with physical assault.

    The fact is, Ken, you are happy with having the nanny state take care of your kids. You prove that by insisting that SARA needs to be involved in the public education of 13-year-olds. You prove that by saying “a lot of kids don’t get that instruction from their parents.”

    No one is saying to throw the baby out with the bath water (although I am sure SARA and Planned Parenthood would not mind that…it is, after all, a choice). What people are saying that, given the carelessness of SARA and ACPS in admitting this drivel into freshman high, the people in charge need to be held accountable.

    Finally, perhaps SARA needs to change its name. “Sexual Assault” is, according to their website, only part of their mission.

  13. Ken, in the context of this incident, SARA was in now way teaching kids to say “no” nor giving them a place to go when “no” didn’t work. The videos shown were most definitely inappropriate and by no means were they teaching kids to say “no”. Quite the contrary. You seem to be arguing for the sake of argument in this case. SARA was clearly in the wrong as was the department head at WAHS. Thankfully, Ms. Acuff made a decision to cut ties with SARA. Parents have a right to be upset and vent over this.

  14. Forbes, you likened the ACPS’s trusting a source which had been trustworthy in the past to their asking for offensive material. That’s ridiculous on its face. I then asked you who asked for the offensive material. You naturally have no answer. I’ve condemned the new material, so your point that SARA knew what it was doing is specious. Of course they did. The question is whether ACPS deserves punishment for an honest mistake, and you can’t back up your opinion. You guys go wild with incoherent rage at the drop of a hat, and then you actually think you’re the wise ones.

    I also didn’t accuse you personally of equating the bad material with physical assault. I said “some of you people.” Read Dr. Luke’s post. My position on SARA is that if their role is confined to doing the good work they were doing before, and no one else steps up to do that, better them than no one. If you have a better alternative, great, but it does a disservice to the kids to deprive them of cautionary advice and a listening ear. Unfortunately the kids need the help SARA was giving before it made these awful videos.

    Not a Lib, learn to read.

  15. Ken, I re-read your posts and silly me, I came back with the same conclusion. Maybe you should re-read them as well. You are arguing for the sake of argument. I guess I really don’t know how to read after all these years. For being the Christian that you claim to be, you certainly like to hurl insults. I can’t read and Forbes lacks basic logical skills (whatever that is) and he can’t read either. You really should quit being so sanctimonious. It’s very tiresome. After you finish looking up that word, tell me, do you really think SARA was ‘giving kids information appropriate for their ages’ with THEIR poor decision to share the youtube videos with ACPS? That is the heart of this issue, is it not?

  16. Lib, there is a difference between an insult and a criticism. How many times and ways do I have to say I think SARA’s previous work was good but these videos were bad? You can see the reason for my criticism.

  17. And Ken, how many times do I have to say that because ACPS welcomed SARA into their classrooms, they “asked” de facto for the materials to be brought in. The fact that multiple layers of school personnel from the ACPS admin to the school admin to the teachers sat on their hands like good little minions and never made one peep that this information was not appropriate. The schools only started dancing after parents–the group becoming more marginalized every day by public schools–reacted with abhorrence.

    Now, I ask you kind reader, if a controversial program that passes the smell test with administration, school, department and classroom officials radically flunks muster with parents, does that not prove the huge disconnect between the educators and the parents of the children?

    Scary, isn’t it?

  18. Forbes, let’s say you discuss with an organization the possibility of their providing material for presentation, review the proposed material, find it good and contract with them for it to be provided for presentation. They do so for years, but then all of a sudden without warning provide you with different and bad material. You present the material without having reviewed it because years of experience have given you reason to trust them. Are you guilty of negligence, or just “guilty” of trusting a previously trustworthy source, or have you actually asked them to present the bad material? I believe the answer is clear.

    The other thing to be said here is that you guys are rightly upset at this material, but silent or almost completely silent about Trump and his affairs, his boasting about his affairs, his boasting about sexual assault, and his cynical and doesn’t-pass-the-smell-test payments to silence his accusers. Why?

  19. SMH, so the great arbitrator of fair and balanced political discussion descends into a bout of TDS in a pathetic attempt to tie a Trump, Clinton, or any other power figure into verbally graphic lessons on how to masterbate 13 and 14 year old boys is beyond me. Maybe Trump accepted the benefits thrown at him or maybe he didn’t. $130,000 is chump change to pay off such a charge when 80% of the media is ready to assume it’s true You twist and turn and play semantics with the best of them Ken. Your acknowledgements of wrongdoing by those you support is followed by a laundry list of even more disturbing behavior by people your detractors supposedly support.

    Ya know, I kind of feel guilty here for piling on because I take no pleasure in group think. I can only say that you might want to pick your battles more wisely. This one is a real loser.

  20. If it was a loser, Al, you could tell me why. Every discussion I get into here ends in the same way, with you guys retreating into insults and declining to answer simple, obvious questions and eventually falling silent. I’m looking for something in your post that even resembles a logical argument, a “since this is true and that is true then the other must be true,” or “since this is false and that is false then the other must be false.” That’s how people demonstrate that their views are correct. But it isn’t there. What is there is a false accusation. I didn’t accuse you guys of approving of Trump’s bad behavior. I asked you why you were silent about Trump’s bad behavior and continue to support him despite it, and despite your condemnation of Clinton and other liberals on sexual matters. I’ve learned not to be surprised that no one has answered.

  21. Ken, my problem (your ham-handed Trump digression notwithstanding) is that the organization providing materials is the SEXUAL Assault Resource Agency. It is not Albie County Fire and Rescue providing updated curriculum for Fire Prevention Week. It is negligent indeed, as this was material provided for 13- and 14-year-old kids concerning sex. Now, given that Lawson will be thrown under the bus whilst everyone else (including the teacher who sat on his/her hands as the video played) will emerge scot-free from this, I might be starting to feel a tad sorry for the incompetents.

    I do not go into this debate with eyes wide shut. You honor public schools; I disdain what they have become.

    Here is a little anecdote to show you what we deal with daily regarding the arrogance and incompetence of public schools (no, this is not about Runcie and Broward County):
    I was examining the minutes of the BOE meeting for my county (in WV). The topic of the 2018-2019 schedule came up. One of the line items actually said that the “superintendent and schedulers changed the professional/staff development days during the year from Fridays to Tuesdays because there was poor attendance when development days were butted against a weekend.” So, the WV teachers–who just went on strike for more money–do not attend staff development days on Fridays so they can enjoy a three-day weekend, using a “sick” day instead of coming to a development seminar.
    And this is what West Virginians are going to pay more taxes to support.

    Ken, if public ed was not in such dire straits in 2018, folks might have a bit more wiggle room to view the Albie County debacle in a different light.

  22. Forbes, I honor public school teachers and administrators (and government bureaucrats), who on average are as decent and well-meaning as the rest of the citizenry, but whom you guys denigrate because they differ with you politically and culturally. I look at character; you judge by politics.

    In regards to my “”ham-handed” Trump digression,” one, I have no idea what you’re trying to say, and two, see my May 13 reply to Al.

    In regards to those West Virginia teachers skipping public meetings, I don’t know the details and I’ll bet you don’t either. Maybe they’re wrong. But maybe they’re overworked. We already know that many teachers spend their own money on supplies. We also know that staff training days can be a waste of time. Put yourself in the teachers’ position. Would you not grab a three-day weekend when you could?

  23. This is an off topic question for Forbes? You seem to have a stalker that goes by the handle of “democracy”. That commentator frequents the WINA forum and needless to say he is no fan of Rob Shilling. The only reason I ask is because in one of the threads he referenced this forum. Since I’m already off topic, what would you guess the ratio of liberal versus conservative organizations to be? I saw a list in reference to Charlottesville. The were written in continuous comma separated form so I didn’t bother to count them. For some reason they were all listed as defenders of the suddenly virtuous beacon of tolerance and inclusiveness known as Charlottesville Virginia.

  24. Ken, the reason I don’t reply to YOUR redirection of the conversation is because that is exactly what it is. I will answer your question tho. I support Trump’s policies plain and simple. I am not a fan of the man, but I am a fan of his agenda. Compared to the other candidate, I am giddy that he is president instead of Hillary Clinton. Why I should go on a rant condemning Trump in a conversation regarding our local education system is beyond me. You can defend individual teachers and I would have no complaint. It’s open season however for administrators because I don’t trust those people to keep their political and social biases out of the classroom.

  25. Al, the blog post that started this conversation is not about “our local education system” and this conversation hasn’t primarily been about it either. It’s been about a particular bad decision one person in the system made which you guys are rightly upset about, and how to respond to that decision. Your response to one man’s negligence having exposed teenagers to inappropriate sexual material is that he should be fired. Your response to another man’s boasting of actual sexual assault is to elect him president anyhow. But you should work for the school system. because I’m sure you’d keep your political and social views out of the classroom. As if that would even be possible.

  26. Um, Ken…no. This is not about a bad decision made by “one person.” Read my previous post on this. Lawson was merely the middle man on this deal. SARA was invited into the classroom by someone over Lawson; it is immaterial if they have a five-year relationship with ACPD. You make that sound like nothing problematic ever happened before; I cannot make that assumption (even if there have been no prior “public” complaints). You assume schools hide nothing from the public; I am not so sure. They then introduced this lesson into the curriculum. Now, if SARA is that sloppy that they can slide porn into what otherwise might be an appropriate lesson plan, then they need to be kept out of the ACPS. Alright, so Lawson let is slip by and did not screen it. Then it was not prescreened by the actual teacher(s) showing the lesson. Then the teacher(s) sat on their butts, permitting the entire video to be shown UNTIL parents screamed. All this reeks of Nuremberg…they were all just following orders and following policy (which is, actually, the typical bureau-speak one hears from public schools when something goes wrong).

    The real gist here is that some folks bow at the altar of government education; others look at it with cynicism. You have your anecdotal evidence to cite that justifies your worship; other have lots of evidence to cite to justify cynicism.

    Your last post is funny because you begin by reminding Al that this thread started not about our “local education system” and you end it by complaining about the legal election of a U.S. president. Also, I appreciate your last two sentences; given the context of this entire thread, I can read between the lines there an admission that government-hired teachers cannot keep their pol and social views out of the classroom.

    Unless you need a reminder, poli/social indoctrination starts in kindergarten, when kids are given a supply list to BUY that includes things like pencils and tissues that are then placed in a communal supply location for ALL kids to access. I make a good living, can go on nice vacations, can save some money. I make it a point to contribute to many causes in either time or money. When I went to school, I had a pencil case with MY pencils inside; they were not placed in a communal supply for anyone to take. I still did not grow up to be a selfish evil capitalist. Kindergarten–(and pre-K for those cradle-to-gravers) is where the poli/social views begin to get indoctrinated.

  27. Forbes, I assume schools are staffed and run by human beings, which means they sometimes hide things. On the other hand, you offer A) no evidence that they hid anything of this nature and B) no argument as to why parents would not have found out and complained like they did this time and have before about other issues.

    So if we reason from probability and available evidence, this is the first time SARA has introduced objectionable material, and we know about the good work they’ve been doing for years, so the problem is not that SARA was invited into the classroom, but that they violated the trust they had well earned. So again, as I said, this is about one person’s negligence (not about hardworking teachers who didn’t take extra time to check what had never needed checking), for which you guys want the greatest penalty while letting Trump off the hook for intentionally doing far worse. But I know, it reeks of Nuremberg because, presuming the teachers disapproved of what they were showing, giving bad sex ed is tantamount to killing Jews, and by not presuming the worst about public school teachers and administrators I am “worshipping” the public schools. Did you even buy that line yourself when you wrote it?

    I might add that since you say you’re concerned about what kids are taught, what you’ve taught kids is that they can sexually assault women, routinely commit adultery, and boast about doing these things but still get elected to the highest office in the land you claim to love; they can still have you in their corner – as long as they’re on your side of the political and cultural divide, that is. You haven’t taught them good sexual mores, high principles and patriotism. You’ve taught them tribalism and hypocrisy.

    I have of course not disputed the legality of Trump’s election; you have raised no eyebrows at Trump’s anti-American authoritarianism in trying to stymie a Republican led investigation into whether one of his political role models interfered in that election (an investigation intended not to unseat Trump but to safeguard democracy).

    It’s neither possible nor desirable for schools to always be neutral on social and political issues. Schools are supposed to teach. You for example, could you do it, would keep SARA out of the schools for good because of your own views. Thanks for explaining the causal link between communism and kindergarten lessons in sharing. But you guys should read Acts 4:32. The problem really started there. ;-)

  28. Now we can add Propel Public Charter Schools of Pittsburgh to the hit parade as a bookend to ACPS. Propel is blaming Adagio Health for helping teach 7th graders what oral sex is…by telling the kids to look it up on the internet. So, Ken, in addition to the stellar work government schools do in places like B’more, Philly, Atlanta, we can add Pittsburgh to the group.

    And people wonder why really educated public is so skeptical of what occurs in the hallowed halls of learning.

  29. Oops,forgot–re: 4:32…if I want to refer to scripture for guidance on how to deal with my possessions and those in need, I can do that on my own. No “problem” started with 4:32; it started with government deciding what, when, where, how and why I must share with everyone else. Churches are some of the most efficient and giving “voluntary” charities around; government–from schools on out–are some of the most pernicious and inefficient arbiters and confiscators when it comes to “sharing.” It wasn’t a problem until gubmint got involved.

  30. Churches are indeed an efficient source of charitable aid; the problem is that they’re aren’t the source of _enough_ aid. The Bible doesn’t give us “guidance” in what to do with our possessions, it commands us to care for the poor, and not just some of the poor. If the churches had been obeying, the welfare state would never have been conceived in the first place. You guys like to say that liberals worship the government, but if we were all better at worshiping God with our actions as well as our words, there would be much less need for welfare – which the “godly” red states get the most of, by the way.

    Your first post today was just an attempt to change the subject. The “educated” public doesn’t judge local schools by what some group did in Pittsburgh.

  31. If no one will press charges for corruption of minor, or conspiracy of such, then all of the parents are responsible too. It is a shame if everyone is too brainless and spineless to have any reasonable response to the Marxist attack on this country.

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