Teen addresses school board about ‘graphic’ and ‘incestual’ story read in class

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – A North Carolina teen spoke out Tuesday at a school board meeting after she was allegedly forced to read a sexually explicit book in class about a relationship between two cousins.

Lorena Benson, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who left the school over the incident, claimed her Athens Drive Magnet High School English class required students to read a book with “graphic, incestual sexual language” in it, according to a video of the meeting posted on X by activist John K. Amanchukwu Sr. The 15-year-old sophomore said the book’s contents made her and other students “very uncomfortable” and “deeply bothered” her due to their sexual nature.

“There was a part in the story that made me very uncomfortable, and I looked around and saw the same expression on other students’ faces,” Benson said during the meeting. “We all had just read the following: It was not the summer you fell in love with your cousin, because that happened just a few summers before when you both wiggled into the tiny space behind grandma’s garage and you tried to fit what you both called his banana into what you both called your tomato, but neither of you was sure which was the right hole.”

Benson did not give the name in the clip, but the passage appears to originate from the story “Tomorrow Is Too Far” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, according to North Carolina newspaper The News & Observer.

“Even after reading it again, it makes me feel very uncomfortable,” she told the school board. “This graphic, incestual sexual language should not be taught in any class, much less an honors English class.”

Benson went on to say that teens like herself should not be consuming explicit content and that she was taught in another class “that teenage brains like mine are not fully developed yet and we must be careful about what we engage in during these years.”

“I am deeply bothered and deeply disappointed,” Benson said, according to the video. “I have decided to leave Athens Drive High School because I should not have to deal with pornographic, incestual sexual content taught to me in my classes.”

A district spokesperson said Benson’s claims are being reviewed, according to The News & Observer.

Parents across the country have fought with schools to keep books containing sexually explicit content and LGBT topics away from minors. One Maryland case has petitioned the Supreme Court to review a school district’s policy that prevents parents from opting their elementary-aged children out of lessons on gender transitioning, pride parades and preferred pronouns.

Athens Drive High School and the Wake County School Board did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.