Teen claims she was compelled to learn ‘graphic, incestual sexual content material’ in Honors English class

A 15-year-old pupil says she is leaving her North Carolina highschool after she was compelled to learn “graphic, incestual sexual content material” throughout her Honors English class.

Lorena Benson, a sophomore at Athens Drive Excessive College in Raleigh, slammed the Wake County faculty board in a now-viral video for permitting college students to learn a narrative allegedly describing a sexual encounter between cousins as “placing a banana in a tomato,” the Information & Observer stories.

“I’m deeply bothered and deeply upset,” Benson advised the varsity board final week. “I’ve determined to depart Athens Drive Excessive College as a result of I mustn’t must take care of pornographic, incestual sexual content material taught to me in my courses.”

Benson, whose household moved to North Carolina three months in the past from the Dominican Republic, claimed the expertise left her and her classmates all feeling “very uncomfortable.”

“Even after studying it once more, it makes me really feel very uncomfortable,” Benson mentioned. “This graphic, incestual sexual language shouldn’t be taught in any class, a lot much less an Honors English class.”

The district mentioned it was reviewing Benson’s claims and that it couldn’t talk about ongoing inside investigations.

Whereas Benson didn’t state what e book her class was studying, the Observer prompt it match the outline of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel “Tomorrow Is Too Far.”

The e book focuses on a sister who by chance brought about her brother’s dying and the fallout that ensues, however one of many opening paragraphs features a line of the narrator having intercourse with a cousin.

Benson’s speech earlier than the varsity board brought about a flurry of shock from social media, with the incident highlighted by Michele Morrow, the Republican nominee for state superintendent of public instruction.

“This should cease. We should shield our youngsters!,” Morrow wrote on X, attacking her Democratic opponent, Mo Inexperienced.

“[He] thinks that is okay and needs to maintain these sexually express supplies accessible to our youngsters,” Morrow added.

“College security completely contains defending younger, growing minds from being attacked with sexually express materials.”