A Central Texas high school student is claiming that boys at her school are masturbating “all over the place” on campus, unchecked by administrators.
The girl made a number of claims at a meeting of Leander Independent School District’s (LISD) Board of Trustees last Thursday, which The Dallas Express has been unable to substantiate. She said she attends Glenn High School.
“Are you aware that there are boys in class and in hallways masturbating?” the girl asked the board members. “What is the administration going to do about it?”
She went on to claim that multiple female students have reported this to district employees but that “nothing has been done to stop it.”
“Students are being kept from their learning because these boys cannot control themselves. Girls are having to go home because of how traumatizing it is. School is not a place boys should be masturbating,” she said at the meeting.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, parental concerns over the sexualization of students have grown in recent years in Texas. This has resulted in sometimes contentious school board meetings that led to policy changes regarding sex education and library book screening.
Christin Bentley, sub-committee chair of the Texas Republican Party’s “Stop Sexualizing Texas Kids” effort and professional special education advocate, spoke with The Dallas Express about some of the library offerings at LISD.
She claimed that one title available at Leander High School, Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human, describes online porn as a “sugary treat” and advises teenagers to use sex toys.
“What kind of behavior do we expect out of young students when we cross their sexual boundaries? We can expect them to cross sexual boundaries, too,” she said.
While the title does not appear on the district’s public-facing library catalog, a back-end search through the education material company Follett’s school library page suggests that one copy of the book is currently available.
Bentley has been working on the issue for some years, claiming, “There is not one school district in the state of Texas that doesn’t have sexually explicit books.”
That may be true at the Dallas Independent School District (DISD), which has drawn criticism over allegedly obscene materials being kept on library shelves, despite pleas from concerned parents and community members, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
The Dallas Express was not able to unearth any allegations of public masturbation by boys on DISD campuses, such as are being made at LISD.
“When we provide such … materials to students, we can certainly expect a rise in things like masturbating in the hallways,” Bentley told The Dallas Express, speaking about sexually-explicit library materials.
The Dallas Express reached out to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a civil rights organization, for comment on the troubling trend reported at LISD and whether the group was willing to weigh in on the question of the connection between certain materials and student misbehavior.
No response was forthcoming by press time.
The girl concluded her remarks at Thursday’s board meeting with a plea to LISD’s Board of Trustees:
“If these boys are getting away with this in classrooms, what will they do with these girls behind closed doors or in the bathroom? If we let them get away with this now, they will go further, and our female students will be unprotected because no one is standing up for them. What are you going to do to make sure all women are safe and protected in schools?”
The Dallas Express reached out to LISD for comment. The district’s chief communications officer responded:
“Thank you for your request for more information about an incident reported via citizen comments during [Thursday’s] Leander ISD Board of Trustees meeting. We consider safety and security a top priority for our students and staff. Our Security department immediately contacted campus staff and requested more details.
“[W]e determined administrators were promptly made aware and had already taken appropriate steps to address an isolated event. We concluded there is no threat to students, nor was there ever. Our administration and student support team take incidents of this nature very seriously, investigating all accusations and working with law enforcement when appropriate.”