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Monday, April 14, 2014

UPDATED: Weber High Teacher Suspended Over Genetalia Lesson

UPDATED: 4/15/2014 @ 9:00 AM

Ogden Valley Students Appear On KSL

Weber High School teacher Ashley Williams has been suspended after a parent called administrators to complain about an 'inappropriate' genitalia naming exercise.  The class is "Adult Roles and financial literacy" and is a college level course taught by a high school teacher through the Concurrent Enrollment program.  Concurrent Enrollment allows high school students to receive college credit while still attending high school.

Apparently KSL was also contacted and they originally broke the story on April 11, 2014.  Two Weber High Students who reside in Ogden Valley,  Austin Hanni and James Allen, were interviewed for the story, which can be seen by clicking here.

Teacher suspended over 'inappropriate' lesson

The Standard followed up with

Weber High teacher suspended over genitalia naming exercise

"We had some students who reported to administration that a teacher was having an exercise where they were put into groups, male and female, to come up with names for genitalia," said Nate Taggart, spokesman for the Weber School District. "These were any names that the kids could come up with, and then they were listed on the board ... on the whiteboard."
Upon hearing the students' concerns, administration went to Williams' classroom.
"It was still on the whiteboard, and they had her erase it immediately," said Taggart.

 In an Ogden Valley Forum exclusive, we were able to obtain a photo of the words that were written on the whiteboard.

Many of the words are explicit so we will post the photo on our archive page.  By clicking on the link you acknowledge that you may be viewing 'inappropriate' slang words that are used to describe genitalia.  Click here to view the whiteboard.

The Standard added an article Monday evening written by Rachel Trotter.

Weber teacher was using method to teach adult class she learned at conference

 Weber High School teacher Ashley Williams was teaching a method learned at a Current Technical Education Conference last summer when she instructed students to list slang terms for genitalia, according to a teachers union official,   

The conference was paid for by Weber School District.  Williams is currently on paid administrative leave while district officials investigate accusations of an inappropriate lesson taught in her "Adult Roles and Financial Literacy Class" on Friday. One parent, whose child is enrolled in the class, said parents signed a statement allowing their children to attend the class and acknowledging the subject matter. The parent, who asked not to be identified, supports Williams.

 What do you think Ogden Valley Forum faithful?

Was the exercise inappropriate?

Should the teacher be reprimanded?

Update: 4/15/2014 @ 9:00 am
 We think the Standard's Mark Saal nailed it this morning with:

Teaching genitalia slang not the disturbing crisis in our schools

Mark states,

I am in no way excusing what this teacher did in her "Adult Roles and Financial Literacy" class. I'm just saying that on a scale of 1-to-10, with 10 being the absolute worst thing that could happen at your kid's school, this rates a 2 -- maybe a 3, tops.

Walking onto school property and opening fire? There's a 10. Teacher having sex with a student? Another 10. Bullying? Arguably, and depending upon the severity, an 8. Cheating on tests? There's a 6 or a 7. All that food getting thrown out after school lunch? A solid 5.

3 comments:

Scott said...

While the teacher may have used poor judgement, it is sad that the parent chose to go to the media to ruin the teacher's life.

Lisa said...

Oh I can't agree with you more, Mark & Scott, you have really hit the problem on the head. After all we are only talking about our kids. Seriously I would be incredibly upset if someone engraved those words on my new car, or my shiny boat, or even on my house, but really who cares if they were plastered on my childs mind!! We should just put them in day care until they reach the age of 18. It shouldn't be that big of a deal that I do all that I can at home to teach them correct principles and then send them to school to be taught pornography!!! It's horrifying enough that they are exposed to so much garbage in the halls, but to be taught this by a teacher, who I trust to be a leader. The principle of the matter is not about the teacher being put on administrative leave, it is about what was taught in the classroom and by the way........what does naming male and female genetalia have to do with Financial literature and Adult Roles? I carry out many adult roles daily in my life and this one has never come up as a need of mine, is it one of yours?

Amy said...

Awesome comment Lisa! At first I'll have you know, I kinda thought you were agreeing. But your sarcasm became evident as I read on! Scott, your 'facts' are not accurate. A parent did not go to the media... a student did. It took a lot of courage for him to stand up for what he believes in and his parents wanted to support him in taking a stand. And the article above stated that one parent called, when in reality it was MANY. And the reason the student went to the media was, in my opinion, a noble one. He had heard students in the lunchroom slamming the teacher and bragging about how they were going to call the news and bash her reputation. This student called the news and explained that he wanted a chance to say that she was a good person who made a poor choice, and that was EXACTLY what was said. I am SO sick and tired of people saying, "Who cares... they hear these things said in the halls all the time?" It's the principle of the matter! The TEACHER chose to do this in front of her classroom for heaven's sake. The person the parent TRUSTS. I think parents have a right to go to sleep at night feeling peace that they are sending our children CLEAR of harm's way from the TEACHER!!! I DO believe the teacher should NOT lose her job over this and I have compassionate for her, I truly do! But it saddens me that our society has become so complacent that this incident was just 'NO BIG DEAL.' Honestly... what kind of reaction I see out of people shows me what kind of moral character people have (or don't) . We simply 'let this slide' and 'let this slide' and before you know it... we have no integrity among our teacher-student relationships in the classroom at all. It's just 'no big deal.' Sad indeed.