Parents are threatening to pull their kids from school and students are being offered counselling after a sex Q&A by a senior teacher allegedly became ‘too graphic’.
The furore over the incident involving students at Illawong Public School in Sydney’s south has even reached the ears of an elected MP.
Parents have been told that on November 7 the Year 6 students were asked by the female teacher to write down questions about sex on a piece of paper.
The teacher then read out the questions and allegedly gave explicit answers, including talking about a pornographic website which was the subject of one query.
After concerns about the session were aired on a parent chat group the teacher involved was sent an email asking for an explanation.
The teacher stated she decided to stage the lesson after the school contracted sex educators Amazing Me to conduct sessions earlier this.
On its website Amazing Me states it has been ‘specialising in providing positive and empowering day and evening sex education programs in primary schools for over 25 years’.
‘Each program is sensitively adapted to suit the needs and ethos of your school community, are curriculum based and reinforce the message that we are all amazing and unique,’ the website states.
The teacher said although the education provided by Amazing Me had been age appropriate it led to much inappropriate talk in the playground, which she was trying to address by creating a ‘safe space’ for students to satisfy their curiosity.
However, this has been met with an outraged response by some parents, the Daily Telegraph reported.
‘We did not give consent for this discussion and it was simply inappropriate,’ one parent said.
‘Parents are really angry and also angry at the responses from the school. These topics are not in the school syllabus.’
MP for the local seat of Miranda Eleni Petinos said she ‘audibly gasped’ reading the parents’ comments on the ‘advanced and graphic sexual content’ ventured at the session.
‘One concerned parent wrote that the person’s ‘actions have advanced her child’s sexual knowledge far exceeding the knowledge of a 12-year-old child,’ she said.
Year 6 students have been offered counselling while the NSw Department of Education has offered an apology over the incident.
‘We take the health, safety and wellbeing of our students very seriously,’ a department spokeswoman said.
‘Following complaints by parents of Year 6 students at Illawong Public School, (staff member) has been directed to undertake other duties in the department, outside of any school, while a thorough investigation into this matter takes place.
‘We expect all our staff to deliver age-appropriate education aligned to the syllabus and in this case it did not happen.
‘We apologise to the school community for the distress to their children.’
Daily Mail contacted Illawong Public School for comment.