Dalton parents enraged over ‘masturbation’ videos for first graders
Last fall, parents at the posh $55,000-per-year Dalton School got wind of their first-graders being taught sex-education lessons that included masturbation.
They complained to school administrators, but were told they had simply “misinterpreted” what Dalton’s now-notorious “health and wellness” educator Justine Ang Fonte — who last month led a controversial and explicit “porn literacy” workshop at another elite prep school — was teaching.
But after The Post’s exposé last week on the porn class, Dalton parents “bombarded” the school with more complaints about Fonte’s curriculum, sources told The Post.
The Post viewed video of a cartoon Fonte used in one of her sex-ed classes for 6-year-olds showing little kids talking about “touching themselves” for pleasure.
“Hey, how come sometimes my penis gets big sometimes and points in the air?” asks the little boy in the cartoon, leading to an explanation of what an “erection” is.
The boy nods and says, “Sometimes I touch my penis because it feels good.”
Then the little girl character chimes in: “Sometimes, when I’m in my bath or when Mom puts me to bed, I like to touch my vulva too.”
Fonte has reassured parents that she does not use the word “masturbation” in class, and that her lessons teach kids not to touch themselves in public.
They are also taught lessons about “consent.” While one mother conceded that teaching the concept of consent can be valuable in protecting children from abuse, another said telling kids that that their own parents or grandparents should not touch them without first asking for permission is extreme.
“Literally parents are supposed to say to their kids, May I hug you?” one parent said.
One mother said that another parent told her, “I’m paying $50,000 to these a–holes to tell my kid not to let her grandfather hug her when he sees her?”
Fonte’s lessons for first-graders also include subjects such as gender assigned at birth, gender identity and gender expression.
“Kids have no less than five classes on gender identity – this is pure indoctrination,” a Dalton mother said. “This person should absolutely not be teaching children. Ironically, she teaches kids about ‘consent’ yet she has never gotten consent from parents about the sexually explicit, and age inappropriate material about transgender to first graders.”
“We are furious,” a third Dalton mother told The Post. “We were horrified to learn this was shown to our first-grade 6- and 7-year old kids without our knowledge or consent. But it’s so hard to fight back because you’ll get cancelled and your child will suffer.”
The second Dalton mother said, “I’m not against all sex education but it’s not cool to keep parents in the dark about it.”
The parents spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are afraid of retaliation.
The second mom hit back at Dalton administrators who she said are playing mind games with parents and not fessing up to what’s really going on in classrooms. The school has said that only a “small group” of parents complained about Fonte’s class last fall and that they “misinterpreted” the content. At the same time, however, the school quietly removed the video about kids touching themselves from the curriculum.
“We are not ‘confused.’ We are in fact just seeing very clearly for the first time what a ‘progressive’ education really means at Dalton,” the mother said. “The fact that the school then gaslit parents into thinking we are confused is abysmal.”
Fonte’s work at the school is reportedly funded by a $450,000 grant given to Dalton in 2012 by hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation. Ackman’s ex-wife Karen is on the Dalton board of trustees.
“What we are seeing across the country is that many schools have lost sight of the purpose of education, and are hiding curriculum and teaching materials from parents,” a spokesman for FAIR, the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, told the Post.
Last week the Post reported on Fonte’s workshop, “Porn Literacy: An intersectional focus on mainstream porn,” at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School. The often-explicit slide presentation and lecture to the 120 co-ed juniors included how porn takes care of “three big male vulnerabilities”; statistics on the “orgasm gap” showing straight women have far fewer orgasms with their partners than gay men or women; and photos of partially-nude women, some in bondage, to analyze “what is porn and what is art.”
Fonte’s presentation included a list of the most-searched pornographic terms of 2019, including “creampie,” “anal,” “gangbang,” “stepmom” and more.
Shortly after the Post published the Columbia Prep story last week, its head of school Dr. William M. Donohue sent a conciliatory email to school parents saying that the “content and tone of the presentation did not represent our philosophy, which is to educate our students in ways that promote their personal development and overall health, as well as to express respect for them as individuals. … It was unfortunate that we did not better inform ourselves of the speaker’s specific content in advance. I apologize … Going forward we will certainly learn from this experience.”
Fonte has not responded to repeated requests from the Post for comment.
A Dalton spokesman said, “As part of Dalton’s comprehensive Health curriculum for students, a lesson on Gender & Bodies included two evidence-based and age-appropriate videos approved for students 4 years and older. These videos align with nationally recognized methodologies and standards. We consistently review our Health curriculum, making sure that the content is developmentally appropriate and, if necessary, we adapt our curriculum accordingly. We will continue to listen carefully to parent feedback, respond thoughtfully to community concerns, and develop lessons that are in the best interest of our students, respect our community’s values, and correspond with best practices.”
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