YONKERS, NEW YORK - A teacher has been barred from classes after having his seventh-grade students draw male genitalia on the blackboard during health class, a school spokeswoman said Friday.
The teacher, whose name was not made public, was assigned to administrative duties and Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio will ask trustees to fire him, said Yonkers school spokeswoman Jerilynne Fierstein.
"There was no way we were going to let him be in front of children," she said.
Fierstein said the state's seventh-grade curriculum calls for lessons in human anatomy and sexuality, but "as a teacher you have to be sensitive and you have to look at the age-appropriateness of any activity that you ask a child to do. And this was just not appropriate."
Pierorazio said the teacher had began his lesson by asking students to volunteer to come to the board to draw male anatomy.
Fierstein said the administration learned of the drawings, which occurred in a class of boys and girls at the Pearls Hawthorne school, when a parent complained.
Trustees will consider the teacher's firing at a March 21 meeting, she said.
Jon Klibonoff, a father of a student at the school, said he did not believe the material was inappropriate.
"This is biology, it's anatomy, it's human sexuality," he said. "They're in puberty. They're aware of it on one level or another."
Fourth-grader Noah Klibonoff disagreed.
"They're not supposed to know what it's supposed to look like at this age yet, so I think it's a little embarrassing and it's also a little inappropriate," he said.
Pierorazio issued a statement saying, "I will not tolerate insensitive, inappropriate behavior by any staff member toward our students. Every student's physical and emotional well-being is paramount in our decision making, therefore immediate action was taken."
from The Associated Press
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