Parents of Emerson Elementary in Compton, California, are up in arms over the school’s decision to invite former porn star Sasha Grey to read to a group of first and third-grade students, at an National Education Association-sponsored event called Read Across America.

TMZ obtained photos of the event, but when they contacted school administrators, they were less than forthcoming about the decision to invite the winner of the 2010 AVN award for best anal sex scene. The award is sponsored and presented by the adult video industry trade magazine Adult Video News.

The school district flatly denied inviting the former porn star, telling TMZ, “we have several celebrities who read to our students each year. The actress you have indicated [Sasha] was not present.”

But Grey herself tweeted about the experience.

“Spent the am with Read Across America Compton, reading to the sweetest 1st & 3rd grade students @ Emerson Elementary,” read a November 2nd post.

Grey is an author herself, having published “Neu Sex,” a collection of artistic photos and essays, back in March.

After the photos were released, she defended her decision to participate in a statement, saying “I have a past that some people may not agree with, but it does not define who I am. I will not live in fear of it. To challenge non-profit education programs is an exercise in futility, counter-productive and anti-educational.”

Perhaps the administrators initially thought that Grey’s recent career change toward more mainstream roles made her a more appropriate elementary school guest. The actress, who once won a Best Oral Sex award for her film “Throat: A Cautionary Tale,” has since acted in a film directed by Steven Soderbergh and appeared regularly in HBO’s Entourage.

“From now on I will not be playing roles where I play a version of myself, or a hooker, for a very long time,” she told Fox News. “I think ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ and ‘Entourage’ were the best places to play those two roles and it can’t get any better. I don’t want to repeat myself, and I think if I continue to take those types of roles I will only be given those roles.”

“The National Education Association and their local partners should take steps to insure that the Read Across America program does not introduce children to notorious performers of pornography,” Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council told The Daily Caller. “Parents have every right to be outraged about her appearance.”

But Frederick Hess, and education policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute doesn’t see what the big deal is.

“If she was talking about adult films or other inappropriate subjects, thats obviously another question. But only problem I have with this … is the district’s lack of candor,” he told TheDC.

Emerson Elementary School principal Sydney Ritchey-Burnett and the NEA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to the NEA’s website, Read Across America is “an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss.”

She read “Dog Breath,” by Dave Pilkey.

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