Liberals are rushing to the defense of a “sex-positive” health educator who developed controversial curriculums for kindergarten through 12th grade students at a prestigious private school in New York City.
SO WHAT
In recent months, a ferocious culture war over critical race theory in public schools has led to more scrutiny on what educators are teaching American children.
What happened
In a sympathetic report published Wednesday, The New York Times portrayed “intersectional health educator” Justine Ang Fonte as the victim of a conservative media outrage campaign, highlighting two New York Post articles from May.
- One story was titled, “Students and parents reel after class on ‘porn literacy.'”
- The other was headlined, “Dalton parents enraged over ‘masturbation’ videos for first graders.”
- In the wake of the Post’s coverage, Fonte resigned her director of wellness and health position at the Dalton School, a toney institution on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The reaction
The Times’ report sparked criticism of Fonte from conservatives and triggered a wave of liberals to champion her as a progressive hero standing up to right-wingers and their old-fashioned world-views.
What FONTES WAS TEACHING
One cartoon Fontes showed to first-graders at Dalton features characters describing the pleasure they derive from masturbation.
Money quote: “It’s OK to touch yourself and see how different body parts feel, but it’s best to only do it in private,” the narrator in the video says.