Albemarle County Public Schools’ (ACPS) sex-ed video scandal [1] now has escalated into the legal realm while again attracting [2] a nation-wide audience.
As investigated and documented [1] by The Schilling Show, twenty-eight ninth-grade girls at Western Albemarle High School [3] (WAHS) intentionally were exposed to graphic, how-to sex videos [4] during a “Family Life [5]” class. These were presented to the children by Sexual Assault Resource Agency [6] (SARA) representative, Lexie Huston, with the blessing of WAHS physical education department head, Frank Lawson (now on administrative leave) [7].
Weeks after the original incident—and following a national social media firestorm [8]—Albemarle County’s largely impotent School Board [9], finally terminated ACPS’ relationship with SARA [10]. However, to date no public statement has been issued by the Board.
Unsurprisingly, soon-to-retire Albemarle County School Superintendent, Pam Moran [11] (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 [10] (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 [12] (screenshot [13]) [12], 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:”
- 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.
- “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 [14] also was used during the WAHS classroom presentations.
LC and McAlister took issue with SARA’s “sex positive [15]” 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).”
-
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.”
-
Have groups share as they are willing.
-
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:
-
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.
-
SARA’s “Sex Positivity” curriculum (attached) will no longer be used in any fashion by ACPS.
-
Future District FLE contractors or presenters will be required to scrupulously adhere to the FLE standards, and will not publicly oppose Abstinence.
-
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.
-
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 [16] 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?
See also Orgasm Ed: Oral, Anal, and Sex Toys in 9th Grade Girls’ ‘Family Life’ Class [17].