Parents faultin’ Dalton
War on UES over ‘XXX ed.’ in 1st grade
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 administrators at the Upper East Side school, 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 said.
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.
The kids 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 their own parents or grandparents should not touch them without first asking permission is extreme.
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,” one 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,” another Dalton mother told The Post. “We were horrified to learn this was shown to our first-grade 6and 7-year old kids without our knowledge or consent. But it’s so hard to fight back because you’ll get canceled and your child will suffer.”
The parents spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are afraid of retaliation.
A third Dalton mom hit back at school 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 the parents “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 Ann Herskovitz, is on the Dalton board of trustees.
This past Sunday, The Post reported on Fonte’s workshop, “Porn Literacy: An intersectional focus on mainstream porn,” at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, on the Upper West Side. The presentation included a list of the most-searched pornographic terms of 2019, including “creampie,” “anal,” “gangbang,” “stepmom” and more.
After the report was published, Columbia Prep’s head of school, Dr. William M. Donohue, sent a conciliatory e-mail to school parents, saying that the “content and tone of the presentation did not represent our philosophy.”
A Dalton spokesman said of the curriculum, “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.”