Public school has taken a heck of a beating in recent months, what with the whole poisoning-your-kids-with-critical-race-theory thing, the keep-schools-closed-for-months-on-end-because-teachers-are-scared-of-a-virus debacle, and particularly the whole put-your-kids in-masks-indefinitely scandal.
Out of Connecticut, meanwhile, comes the latest black mark on public school's permanent record:
One Connecticut school is under fire for handing out a "Pizza and Consent" assignment, where eighth-grade students were given a handout stating that pizza can be used as a "metaphor for sex," which instructed students to list their favorite and least favorite pizza toppings "in relation to sex."
"Here are some examples: Likes: Cheese = Kissing," the assignment states. "Dislikes: Olives = Giving Oral," stated the assignment given to eighth graders within the Enfield Public Schools.
"Now that you know this metaphor for sex, let's explore your preferences! Draw and color your favorite type of pizza. What's your favorite style of pizza? Your favorite toppings? What are your pizza no-nos? Now mirror these preferences in relation to sex!," the assignment states.
Here at Not the Bee, we prefer the specific to the vague. In this case, "eighth-grade students" is not specific enough; "13-year-olds" is more accurate.
Yes, this school was passing out a sexual questionnaire to 13-year-olds.
We'll give you a minute here.
Ah, but the superintendent claims the distribution of the list was a "mistake."
Just a mistake, folks!
After Parents Defending Education exposed the assignment on Monday, Enfield Public Schools Superintendent Christopher Drezek said during a school board meeting on Tuesday that the assignment was sent "inadvertently" to eighth-graders, and said it was a "mistake."
"The simple truth was it was a mistake. And I know that there are some who may not believe that. I know there are some who don't necessarily maybe want that answer," Drezek said. "In this particular case, I didn't even get a chance to because the person who made the mistake jumped ahead of it before I was even notified that it had happened."
Ah, yes, a simple error. Who among us hasn't accidentally included a sexually explicit worksheet in instructional material for children too young to be in high school?
School officials claim that they meant to distribute an alternate version of the assignment, but their explanation sounds, well, a bit less than convincing:
'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,' Quartin added.
'Students are then asked to reflect and discuss how thoughts or feelings can be confusing or miscontrued [sic], if we rely on non-verbal cues/communication alone. The parallel to be taught here is that when discussing pizza topping it is important that your preferences are clearly communicated to avoid any misunderstanding. This discussion then leads into how students can identify when consent is either present or not.'
Okay, let me see if I have this straight.
There were two pizza-based assignments, one of which involved sexual elements and one of which was apparently completely identical to the other except it had had all the sex elements removed—and yet someone in the school still mistakenly sent out the former rather than the latter.
Not sure I'm buying that. And if I'm a parent in that district, I'm 100% sure I'm yanking my kid out of that school immediately.
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