Sex education, FCHS style, or...what did you learn in school today?
Submitted by Doug Thompson on September 12, 2008 - 10:12pm.
The assembly of some 250 Floyd County High School students, members of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), in the school auditorium Friday was supposed to be a discussion about the dangers of drunk driving with a video from the American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA) and a debate between Commonwealth's Attorney Stephanie Shortt and lawyer Jonathan Rogers.
It turned into a graphic display of sexual intercourse.
The DVD with the ATLA video stuttered and, according to students at the event, The operator of the computer stopped the DVD and brought up the "favorites" play list on the laptop he was using to show the video. Instead of clicking again on the DVD, students in the auditorim say the operator apparently clicked on one of the videos stored as a "favorite" on the computer's hard drive and it turned out to be a graphic pornographic film featuring a closeup shot of graphicsex. FCHS teacher and coach Stan Hawkins, who is also the school advisor of SADD, told the Roanoke Times he was adjusting the screen when the porno popped up. What is not clear yet is whether or not the laptop is question was a school unit assigned to a teacher or program or a personal one used for the demostration.
The video was stopped after a few seconds (which witnesses say lasted 5 to 15 seconds) but the damage was done. Accounts of what followed range from "chaos" to "pandemonium." Students whipped out cell phones and started calling people to relate what happened. My Blackberry lit up like a Christmas tree.
FCHS Principal Barry Hollandsworth sent a letter home with students calling the affair a "very unfortunate incident" and telling parents "your child" had been exposed to pornography. Hollandsworth was vague on details but promised a "complete investigation" into what happened.
What happened is that somebody screwed up big time because a pornographic video clip somehow found its way onto the hard drive of a laptop that is used in a public school.
Stay tuned. The school board is meeting on Monday and will probably discuss details of the incident in a closed-door "executive session."
(Updated on September 14.)
clarification
Doug,
Lets be clear, if we know the details: was this laptop school-issued, and was it Stan Hawkins school-issued/personal laptop??
Not sure yet
I'm not going to speculate on that until we know all the facts. I've been told differing stories on ownership of the laptop and until we can determine the truth it's best to avoid speculation. This is a serious matter and reputations are on the line.
Shouldn't be hard to figure out
The investigation shouldn't be too difficult as there are a finite number of questions to be answered. 1. Who was the laptop issued to if it belonged to the school? 2. Who downloaded the porn? It doesn't download and wind up in the favorites list by accident. Once those questions are answered, responsibility should be taken and disciplinary action meted out per school board policy. And the sooner the better so everyone can move on for the sake of the students and the school system.
Were Shortt and Rogers
Were Shortt and Rogers present at the time the video was shown?
Yes
Shortt and Rogers were there and saw the video when it played.
I believe SADD actually
I believe SADD actually stands for Students Against Destructive Decisions now and Hawkins is (ironically) the sponsor of the club.
You are correct
I fixed it. Thank you for the heads up.
not 15 seconds
As a student at Floyd I know that it may have seemed like 15 seconds. But, think about it, do you really think that it would take that long for any staff member to get to the computer to get the video off of the screen? It was more like 5 or 6 long seconds. Still 5 or 6 seconds is a long time for a group of high school students to be shown anal porn.
Estimates of time vary
I've talked to more than a dozen students who were in the auditorium Friday and with attorney Jonathan Rogers and Commonwealth's Attorney Stephanie Shortt. The estimates range from 5 to 15 seconds. One student showed me a video she shot with her cell phone which captured the last few seconds of the video. She had to get the phone out of her pocket, turn it to video and capture the footage. That could take as long as 15 seconds.
The length of time is less important than than the fact that it happened.
I don't know what to think,
I don't know what to think, except my gut feeling is very strong that a teacher would not be that careless if he had known it was there.
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