WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — Parents in the Monessen School District are turning 50 shades of red over word search puzzles given to middle school students based on an erotic novel and movie.
The students were given puzzles based on "Fifty Shades of Grey" that contained terms including "spanking," ''submissive," ''leather cuffs" and "bondage." Other words on the list were more explicit.
Parent James Carter complained about it at Tuesday night's school board meeting, saying he tried to question the school's principal and dean of students, but they refused to talk when he insisted on recording their conversation.
"I wanted to record the conversation because a lot of parents had questions about it, and I was denied that," Carter told the board.
Monessen district officials said at the meeting that they couldn't discuss the issue because they just learned about it Monday. Superintendent Leanne Spazak said the circumstances of the puzzle are under investigation.
“We were stunned,” said Claudese West, a close family friend of one of the students who received the risqué word search.
“I kept asking, ‘Was this health class? How old were these students?’” West said. “I said, ‘How many kids received this? What teacher was behind this?’ What professional would even hand this out to 13-year-olds?”
Not everyone was as offended.
“I really didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” said Lorina Maraldo Rialti.
The movie opens in theaters Friday. It's based on a best-selling book by E L James about a college student and her torrid affair with a 27-year-old billionaire with a penchant for bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.
WPXI
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XCUXZC2XYZHCRGNNGKFEX6U3LQ.png)
