FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 24, 2019

Watchung Hills Teacher Pushed for Pornography in School Curriculum; Arrested for Soliciting Child for Sex

WATCHUNG HILLS –The Watchung Hills School District has been under fire for over a year for promoting pornography in its curriculum, despite a lawsuit and requests from concerned parents and community groups to remove the material.

Earlier this month, the school district found itself embroiled in a different matter after a teacher allegedly sent obscene images of himself to a student and then allegedly solicited that student for sex. Sean DiGiovanna, a high school social studies teacher and sponsor of the gay and lesbian student group on campus, was arrested on October 10. DiGiovanna had, as recently as last summer, advocated for the use of pornographic curriculum in the school.

DiGiovanna is seen on a YouTube video from June of 2018 advocating for the use of Fun Home: A Tragicomic in the school’s LGBT curriculum. Fun Home includes explicit images of gay sex and nudity, and DiGiovanna stated that he had talked to students about the content of the book. The author of Fun Home has alluded to the power of the images featured in her book stating, “[I]t’s all about the power of images . . . I can understand why people wouldn’t want their children to accidentally think this was a funny comic book and pick it up and see pictures of people having sex . . . drawings are very seductive and attention catching,” (emphasis added).

We know that pedophiles are opportunistic and seek to groom their victims. This begs the question whether DiGiovanna was grooming victims, in part, through the use of school-approved pornographic curriculum materials. The Watchung Hills Board of Education, the governor and the legislature need to ask themselves if the use of such material in school curriculum is prudent and safe.

Statement from Shawn Hyland – Director of Advocacy for Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey:

“The Watchung Hills Regional High School Board of Education has ignored red flags all along the way in this situation. They have discounted for over a year the grave concerns Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey has been sharing with them and they have turned a blind eye to concerned parents. The Governor and legislature only made the situation riskier for students with the approval of troubling new LGBT education mandates earlier this year, which some schools think is an open invitation to graphic and explicit sexual content like Fun Home. This mandate also erodes parents’ ability to protect their children by denying them the right to opt their children out.”

The governor and legislature must face the fact that placing curriculum containing pornographic material in the classroom, without the option for parents to opt-out their children, opens the door for more of DiGiovanna’s type of victimization.

For media inquiries or to schedule an interview with Shawn Hyland, contact Robert Noland at: 719-308-2822 or media@familypolicyalliance.com.

###