Mother set to sue education department after daughter was given school sex ed talk on ‘bestiality’ and ‘incest’
Nicki Gaylard pulled her 14-year-old daughter out of school after she was given an ‘unacceptable’ sex education talk. Now the mother-of-six is set to sue the education department.
A mother whose teenage daughter was traumatised when allegedly taught about bestiality and incest during a sex education presentation is preparing to launch legal action.
Nicki Gaylard pulled her three children out of Renmark High School in South Australia in March last year after her 14-year-old daughter Courtney and her Year 9 female classmates were given a lecture by a third-party organisation called headspace Berri.
The talk, which parents were not told about and which was not supervised by a teacher, allegedly exposed the girls to the concepts of bestiality and incest.
“A girl asked what bestiality was and one of the presenters laughed and said: ‘It means having sex with animals, but don’t Google it’,” Ms Gaylard said.
“Another term that they used was ‘sisterly love, brotherly love’, telling the girls that it meant having sex with siblings. Basically giving these girls the idea that being affectionate with your brother or your sister might not necessarily mean just family affection and it might represent something sexual.”
The students were also allegedly shown a picture of someone who had gone through gender reassignment surgery.
Ms Gaylard, a mother of six, said her daughter was left traumatised and is now being homeschooled.
“Why were they putting ideas in her head, making her question why she loves her siblings?” Ms Gaylard said. “We’ve got two pet dogs and as soon as she walked in the gate, she said ‘mum, I don’t want to look at the dogs anymore’. How do you get those thoughts out of her?”
Despite repeated requests, headspace Berri has not shared the presentation with Ms Gaylard. “(My daughter’s) childhood was shortened through exposure to completely inappropriate material that headspace won’t even let me see. How can they be happy to show to children what they are ashamed to show to adults?”she said.
Ms Gaylard is prepared to launch legal action against the SA Department for Education in the Federal Court.
Robert Clarke, director of advocacy for ADF International, which is supporting Ms Gaylard’s case, accused the school of breaking parents’ trust.
“No parent should be kept in the dark about what their child is being taught, and no child should be placed in an unsupervised session dealing with adult themes,” Mr Clarke said.
Renmark High School did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the SA Education Departmentwould not address the impending legal action. “What happened at Renmark High School was not acceptable. Steps have been taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” the spokesperson said.
A headspace national spokesperson said it had conducted a review into FocusOne Health, the operator of headspace Berri, and how it had engaged and vetted the external presenter.
“headspace national’s review found that while the presentation was intended to promote LGBTIQA+ inclusivity and acceptance and acknowledge the historical and continuing discrimination and challenges this community faces, there were aspects of the presentation that were not appropriate for young people,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the youth mental health foundation had strengthened guidance for operators to ensure services are “suitable and safe”.
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