Teacher Suspended For Showing Students ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ In Classroom


A West Virginia teacher has been suspended for the rest of the school year without pay for showing Fifty Shades of Grey to a group of students who asked her to show it to them as a reward for their good work, according to the Charleston Daily Mail.

A group of junior and senior girls allegedly asked if they could watch the controversial movie last week. One student brought the DVD to school. Kristie Long, a health teacher at Hampshire High School, agreed and showed the film without reviewing the movie’s content. An assistant principal was alerted by another adult and stopped the movie 10 minutes after it started.

Long told school officials she didn’t know what the movie was about.

Earlier this week, the Hampshire County school board’s five members unanimously voted to suspend Long after nearly two hours behind closed doors. Some wondered why board members needed that long to review the teacher’s case and make a decision.

WOWT reported that the principal said he was surprised that a very capable teacher such as Long could have had such an “extreme lack of judgment” in this matter. It just wasn’t a case of her showing Fifty Shades of Grey, but it is strictly against school policy to show any movie.

People are wondering how could a teacher not know about the contents of Fifty Shades of Grey. There had been so much talk about the three erotic fiction books by E. L. James even before the movie was released last Valentine’s Day.

Since Long didn’t know what the movie was about, some people have speculated that Long probably has since watched the movie to find out why she was suspended without pay for the remainder of the school year. If she does watch Fifty Shades of Grey, she will see that the first 10 minutes included only the introduction into the movie. Therefore, the students did not see any of the sexual activities that come later in Fifty Shades of Grey. If the assistant principal had not stopped the movie when she did, the students would have seen much more.

While the teacher claimed she did not know what the movie was about, the students apparently knew what the movie was about. After all, one student had a DVD of Fifty Shades of Grey.

There are only a few more days left in the school year. While Long’s suspension won’t be that long for the rest of the school year, her job might be in jeopardy for the next school year.

Do you think Kristie Long really didn’t know what Fifty Shades of Grey was all about? Do you think suspension without pay for the rest of the school year was fair?

[Image via Getty Images]

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