Pre-teen students at a religious middle school in the UK were asked to distinguish different genres of pornography – including the “revenge” and “hardcore” varieties – for a homework assignment that left some parents disgusted.
The Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull, a Church of England school, has come under fire after asking students aged 11 to 14-years-old to “define” a number of terms in a homework project, including “hardcore,”“soft,”“transgender” and “revenge” pornography, and to answer questions about “wet dreams,” sex trafficking and female genital mutilation, among other things. While the assignment was part of a sex education lesson, one mother says the material was wildly inappropriate for her 11-year-old, insisting it may have “scarred her for life.”
“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,” the mother, who asked to be identified only as Mrs Taylor, told local media.
She was only in primary school last year living her best life, now she is being asked to search for hardcore pornography.
A school in Hull gave out homework to children aged between 11 and 14 that asked them to define ‘drag queens’, ‘hardcore porn’ and what appears to be ‘transgender pornography’. But of course, the sexualisation of children is just a ‘far right conspiracy’. Homeschool your kids. pic.twitter.com/3m9Gc6BP2Y
Though Taylor said she believes sex-ed is generally “good for the kids” and doesn’t mind her daughter taking the course, she draws the line at “things that would destroy her mind,” noting that the students “have been told to use Google and she would have searched it. I did Google hardcore porn and some of the images that came up [were] quite disturbing.” She has now taken up the issue with the school, which she described as “very religious.”
“I got in touch with the school. I had a few choice words, I was fuming and I said point blank she is not doing it, she wants to be out the lesson. I am disgusted with it,” Taylor went on, asking “How would they define that in school if they were not off? How would they have done that lesson when it’s against the law?”
Hoping to tackle the controversy, school principal Chay Bell has extended an apology to Taylor and other parents who felt the homework crossed the line, explaining that students were not meant to look up the topics on the internet.
“I am genuinely sorry if parents or students have unnecessarily researched any of these phrases and for any offence caused,” Bell said, adding that the school will review future assignments to ensure they are “fully age appropriate” and strive to make parents aware of any “potentially sensitive content.”
With British students learning from home under a nationwide shutdown to stem the spread of Covid-19, parents are getting a better glimpse into what their children are doing in class, but the incident at the academy has left Taylor suspicious, wondering if other X-rated school work has escaped her notice.
“Now it’s making me think what they are learning about at school that we don’t know about,” she said. “We only know about this because they’re home learning.”
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