Sexually explicit assignment at Colorado school prompts apology from superintendent

Warning: This story contains graphic sexual content.

A Colorado school district is under scrutiny after one of its teachers provided students with sexually charged assignments from the poem, “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg, without parental consent, Fox News reported.

Skylar Cason, a 16-year-old at Steamboat Springs High School, informed her father of the assignments in her music literature course taught by teacher Ryan Ayala. The poem spoke vividly about sexual acts, including “descriptions of sexual violence against women,” according to a letter sent by the First Liberty Institute to Steamboat Springs School District Superintendent Brad Meeks. First Liberty Institute is “the nation’s largest legal organization dedicated exclusively to defending and restoring religious liberty for all Americans,” the letter states.

Ayala reportedly “read every word of the text out loud” as students had to listen to him say words such as, “f*ck,” “a**,” “c*nt,” “c*ck,” and then had students “fill-in-the-blanks with the missing words,” according to the letter.

First Liberty Institute in the letter addressed to Meeks also contained the email Ayala sent to Skylar’s parents, apologizing “for not doing my utmost to create a comfortable learning environment for Skylar.”

Within the letter, Skylar detailed feeling “guilty” and “violated,” saying it felt as “if her skin were crawling, each of the numerous times her teacher vocalized the word, ‘c*ck.’”

“In the age of #MeToo, it is difficult to conceive how the controversial materials taught in Mr. Ryan Ayala’s Music Literature class could be acceptable to you. We request your immediate action to ward against similar, unconstitutional encroachments in the future,” wrote Jeremy Dys, First Liberty special counsel for litigation and communications, representing Skylar.

Meeks said in a statement that there are certain “procedures in place for when mature content is part of the curriculum and that includes giving parents advance notice and allowing them to opt their child out of participating.”

After a committee reviewed “Howl” and other poems that include portrayals and “descriptions of sexual matters,” it determined the literary works will remain in the curriculum but said that Ayala did not provide advance notice, according to the statement from the superintendent.

“For that, we apologize,” Meeks said in the statement.

Moving forward, Meeks said the district is “working to ensure that all of our teachers are aware of proper procedures around incorporating controversial materials and follow them. Students who choose not to engage in the material will be given an alternative assignment.”

“We do believe that what occurred this fall was simply an oversight as a result of not understanding the policy,” Meeks said in the statement. “We regret if members of our community were offended.”

This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 6:07 PM.