A secondary school has been chastised for giving kids a movie about pornography that was so explicit that several students walked out.
On Monday, pupils at Wadalba Community School on the Central Coast of NSW were given a TEDx Talk on video by sexual health expert Ran Gavrieli titled ‘Why I stopped viewing porn’ without notice at the monthly year 10 assembly.
In the video, Gavrieli discusses several sorts of internet pornography in order to answer the question, “What would porn consider sexual?”
In the talk Mr Gavrieli claimed it was ‘whatever men find arousing’.
‘If men find it arousing to choke a woman, to have brutal sex without one touch, hug, kiss, tender caress? Well, then it is sexual,’ Mr Gavrieli said in the video.
‘It arouses men to see a woman or a child cry? It is sexual. It arouses men to rape a woman? Well, then it is sexual.’
In attempting to explain the aim of cameras in pornography, Mr Gavrieli added ‘porn cameras have no interest in capturing any normal sensual activities such as petting, caressing, making out, touching, hugging, kissing – no, what porn cameras are into is the penetration.’
This video – reportedly shown without warning or context – caught a number of students aged between 14 and 15 off guard and even left some students in tears as a result, reported the Daily Telegraph.
One 14-year-old student claimed that she had been a victim of rape at a party earlier this year and that the graphic detailed descriptions of porn, in particular rape, had been were ‘triggering’.
‘I went to the bathroom straight after because I was throwing up,’ she said.
‘They could have at least separated the girls and boys or given a trigger warning especially while talking about rape.’
Another eight girls are understood to have walked out.
The school’s principal Melinda Brown has subsequently written to parents to ‘unreservedly apologise’ for the incident and admitted the lesson breached Department of Education guidelines.
‘I apologise unreservedly for this lesson going ahead without first informing you and providing you with the option to remove your child from this lesson,’ Ms Brown wrote.
‘I want to assure you the incident does not reflect the high standards and care of students that Wadalba Community School upholds at all other times.
One parent of a student at the school said the video ‘has affected quite a lot of students.
‘When you’ve got a video that talks about sexual dominance of males, choking, that’s a trigger for these girls.’
Another parent added: ‘I’m genuinely surprised we weren’t consulted.
‘Don’t get me wrong these kids know about a lot of stuff … but this should be a parents’ discussion.’
A spokesperson for the department stated that ‘the school did not follow Department policy and the incident does not reflect the high standards required by the Department.’
‘The matter has been referred to the Department’s Professional and Ethical Standards Directorate for investigation.’
‘The Department apologises unreservedly for any distress caused and counselling is being offered to the students involved.’