A second-grade public school lesson in Greenwich, Connecticut included a video detailing sexual abuse — that showed a cartoon of a fully erect penis, according to a report.
The public school students, who would be aged 7 or 8, were shown the cartoon “Alfred Jr. & Shadow: A Short Story About Beeing Scared” during a virtual class on social and emotional learning, the Greenwich Free Press said.
The nearly 10-minute film, often reserved for therapy sessions, shows two cartoon owls talking about terrifying experiences for kids, including “stuff that’s very difficult to talk about.”
The cartoon suddenly cuts to an image of the silhouetted man with an erect penis standing over a sad-looking child.
The voice-over explains that some “children have experienced an adult touching or putting their penis in the child’s private parts or mouth,” saying they’re “terrified that this will happen again.”
The image remains onscreen for almost nine seconds before cutting to other potential terrifying scenarios, including parents who are drunk or on drugs or physically abusive.
“In my hometown, in my daughter’s age group class of second grade, they showed an animated video today of a man with an ERECTION standing over a child!!!!!” Greenwich Schools parent Carl Higbie tweeted.
“This is not OK!!!!” he wrote.
Higbie, a local conservative political commentator, told the Free Press that he was relieved that his own second-grade daughter was not shown the video, but said numerous “disgusted” parents had contacted him.
He called for a full investigation and demanded whoever was responsible be fired.
“That somebody thought this video was acceptable for second graders was abhorrent,” he told the local paper.
He also told the right-wing Gateway Pundit website that the teachers either “didn’t care enough to review this before playing it” or “thought it was OK.”
Either way, “these folks have no business teaching our kids,” Higbie said.
Greenwich Schools Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones sent an email to many parents on Monday, suggesting it was likely meant for a private therapy session for children who have experienced trauma, the report said.
“The content at this point in the video was not appropriate for our [Greenwich Public Schools] second grade classrooms,” Jones wrote.
Parents were offered help from psychology staff on how to discuss the video with their child, and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) was also alerted to it having been shown, the report said.
The second-graders involved were in classrooms run by Ms. Goodwin and Ms. Hanzlik, the paper said without elaboration.
The district did not immediately respond to messages from The Post.
