In 2009, Philip Todd Wilson was the principal at Montgomery County High School in Kentucky when he protested the reading of LGBTQ-themed young adult novels in a high school English class. Reading the books was optional for students, but including them on a list was still problematic for those adults. One of the parents involved in the protest referred to the books as “soft pornography.” (They’re not.)

Wilson just wanted to protect the kids, right?

Well, about that…

Philip Todd Wilson, 54, was busted Tuesday after state troopers received a tip that he was in possession of explicit images involving a minor, and possibly distributing the revolting photos, Kentucky State Police announced. Wilson, principal of the Clark County Area Technology Center in Winchester, was later hit with 15 counts each of distributing and possessing child porn, police said. He is no longer employed by the school, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education told the Louisville Courier-Journal.

At least kids learned a valuable lesson about irony…

If Wilson’s problem at the time was the fear of “adult” content like sex, child abuse, suicide, and drug abuse, then let’s hope he doesn’t want kids reading the Bible either.

Even looking beyond the hypocrisy and illegality of what he’s doing now, it’s clear he was hurting kids a decade ago, too. High school students deal with real-world issues; trying to prevent them from reading books that discuss those topics makes it that much more difficult for kids to realize they’re not alone and that there’s a way out of their situations. There are always age-appropriate ways of discussing those issues — that’s the role of an educator.

As for Wilson, it’s a tale as old as time, isn’t it? The ones who tend to yell the loudest about sexual immorality are often the ones guilty of committing it themselves.

(Thanks to everyone for the link)

