HITCHCOCK — What was supposed to be a motivation speech to a collection of sixth- through eighth-grade girls at Crosby Middle School instead turned into an explicit sex talk, including descriptions on how to perform oral and anal sex, Hitchcock school officials said.
The motivational speaker turned out to be a Hitchcock school board member, Shirley Price.
Hitchcock Superintendent Mike Bergman said the Jan. 15 pep talk was supposed to be a motivational speech.
Price, who was born with physical handicaps, still managed to earn a doctoral degree and also won a seat on the school board.
Bergman said when Price was introduced, she asked that the school’s principal leave the room. Most of the teachers remained, but they did not step in when Price’s speech turned inappropriate, Bergman said.
“Somehow she got some story that she heard that students were having sex on campus and went into a speech about sexual type things,” Bergman said. “There was no motivational speech at all.”
The speech reportedly turned graphic and included instructions on how to perform oral and anal sex and included several curse words, Bergman said.
Students apparently were told to keep the contents of the speech secret, Bergman said.
Attempts to reach Price, who does not have a working listed land line phone and whose mobile phone answered with a generic “not available” recording, were unsuccessful.
The district has been flooded with calls from outraged parents who were unaware of the presentation until a couple of parents spoke at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
After that meeting, Price apologized and met one-on-one with some of the parents, Bergman said.
The district did not inform parents of the presentation until a letter was sent home with students Friday.
The letter, which does not name Price, said that a school trustee’s speech was “off-target and objectionable.”
“The topic discussed was not the agreed upon topic,” the letter says.
Bergman’s letter said the controversy would be a topic for discussion at the next regular school board meeting.
Meanwhile, the district tightened its policies on presentations to students. It now requires the school principal to be present for all presentations.
Teachers also would be given more leeway to interrupt a presentation deemed inappropriate, no matter who the speaker is, Bergman said.
