ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (NBC) -- A history teacher in Silver City, New Mexico is on administrative leave after a videotape containing pornography was shown in a classroom.
Outraged parents showed up at the Silver Consolidated School Board meeting Thursday night and gave the district an earful after their kids saw what they call extremely graphic material during a history class.
A substitute teacher at Cliff High School near Silver City had no idea what they were about to show a group of students when the teacher popped in a VHS tape that the regular history teacher had left for the class.
What was on the tape now has the regular history teacher in trouble.
Parent Francesca Estevez said Thursday, "They put it in, rewound it like any individual would do, and played it— and so the classroom was subject to 3 or 4 seconds of very graphic, disturbing sexual pornography." Estevez was among a group of parents speaking out at the school board meeting. Her 15-year-old son was in the classroom when the tape was played.
Estevez said, "The first portion of the tape was a very graphic, what he said, naked ladies doing things."
Parents requested to see the tape for themselves. They say the tape was a military documentary recorded from television, and it appears the tape once had pornography on it but wasn't all erased.
Superintendent Dick Pool was at Thursday's meeting. He couldn't speak on camera because it's a personnel issue that is still being investigated.
He said district policy requires videos above a G Rating to be screened and approved by administrators.
The history teacher's tape was not screened.
Parent Sabrina Pack said, "If he didn't go through that, that is even worse, because as a parent, you are wondering what else is happening in this class."
Some parents want a definite reprimand.
"If this video was not screened, then termination would be the most likely option in my opinion," Parent Mike Rowse said.
Superintendent Pool did not speculate on what the discipline would be.
Parents say the video has been shown before, but they say the regular history teacher was always there to cue it to the right spot.
