Toronto school probes principal’s poetry

Canada’s only Reform day school is investigating its principal for explicit poems he posted on his Web site.

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Canada’s only Reform day school is investigating its principal for explicit poems he posted on his Web site.

The board of the Leo Baeck Jewish Day School, which has two Toronto-area campuses and 800 students, has set up a committee of parents to review six poems written by director David Prashker, 52.

An anonymous e-mail last week circulating the poems to parents called the works “disturbing” and asked whether parents should entrust their children’s education to the author.

Some of the verses contain the F word and overt sexual imagery. One begins with the line “the first act of killing is the hardest.” Another speaks of an “earth-shaking messianic orgasm.”

At least one parent has called for Prashker’s dismissal, saying he showed an “appalling lack of judgment.”

As of Wednesday, Prashker’s Web site appeared to be unavailable, though the controversial poems could still be found elsewhere.

 

 

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