Posted on 10/23/2018 1:22:17 PM PDT by Simon Green
Several parents are outraged after a drag queen spoke to their children during Rocky Top Middle School's career day. Now the principal is apologizing for not notifying parents ahead of time.
A police officer, an architect and a drag queen -- a broad range of jobs on career day, but parents say one of them has no business inside a school.
“I was pretty appalled. I was pretty surprised. It was a shock because no one was notified,” parent Jen Payer said.
Ms. Jessica is a gay man who was invited by one of her fans, a Rocky Top student, to come to career day. All of the guests talked about their job and its connection to literacy.
“This person is an adult entertainer and is talking to 12-year-old students about something that’s adult nature,” parent Heather Rogers said.
Rocky Top principal Chelsea Behanna said the event reflected the diversity of the community.
In a letter sent to parents on Monday, she said “Jessica read a chapter from 'Horrible Harry' and she used the text to illustrate the damage bullies can do, the need to always put kindness and acceptance at the forefront, and the shortsightedness of judging a book by its cover.”
Ms. Jessica says she used career day to show kids it’s OK to be different.
“I had a couple kids that were like, 'I’m gay in school and I get bullied every week and I don’t know what to do and just talking to you helped me realize that I can still be me and still be happy,'” Jessica said.
“I got messages being like thank you so much for coming to my class. I was having a really horrible week and you made my day.”
But parents said Jessica was not age appropriate. They said they should have been notified so they could make the decision to have their child attend the career day or not.
“I take responsibility for not notifying families ahead of time and apologize for any stress this has caused you and your child," Behanna said. "Moving forward, a prominent step in planning for next year will be to share the guest list for all families prior to the event.
"Should you feel like any of the sessions are not appropriate for your child, you’ll be welcome to notify us and we’ll make alternate arrangements for your child during that time.”
Meanwhile, Jessica says the negative feedback from some parents won’t stop her from speaking to kids, no matter the age.
“I want to go to more elementary schools because of this experience at Rocky Top. I’ve already reached out to a couple people about how to develop a Ted Talk,” Jessica said.
Jessica uses the stage name “Jessica L’Whor.” She said she introduced herself as Ms. Jessica during career day because she did not think her last name was appropriate for a school setting.
Well, they’ve essentially turned it into a career.
Thornton, Colorado. About 15 miles north of Denver.
Oh. Colorado, not Tennessee. Whew!
“The principal needs to be fired”.
ya think! If it was my 12 year old exposed to that he would have his ass kicked. Damn the consequences.
These people are mentally ill and the left is using them as another voting block, convincing them they’re victims.
Simon, would be too much to ask that you tell us where the hell this school is, what state, so we don’t have to click on the article to find that out?
Apologies. Thornton, a suburb of Denver, CO.
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