Philadelphia Quaker school sex-ed teacher says 'porn literacy' necessary for students who are 'sexual beings' since birth

Video footage has emerged on social media of the Sexuality Education Coordinator at an exclusive Pennsylvania private school saying that children are sexual beings from the moment they are born.

Al Vernacchio, who made the comments during an award presentation last August, has been the pre K - 12 sex-ed teacher at Friends' Central, a private Quaker school in Philadelphia, for twenty years.

In a clip of his speech shared on Twitter by parent rights advocate Meghan Brock, Vernacchio said he is responsible for the sexuality education of all the school's students, from three-year-olds in nursery school to the 12th graders who are turning 18 and preparing to leave high school.

"That's a huge range, but every single one of those kids is a sexual being," said Vernacchio. "They have been since birth, and at every age and stage, we can offer them age appropriate, transformative sexuality education."

Vernacchio then told the audience that it's not enough that he alone educates these young minds, but rather that it is the job of everyone to step up to the task.

"It's not enough that I teach them; we have to teach them" he said. "Part of my message today is that we all, no matter what else we do in life, need to find a way to be sexuality educators for the kids in our lives. If we don't step up, others will, and many of those others don't see wholeness and freedom the way we do."

Vernacchio advocated for children to be "porn-literate," and argued that children are exposed to porn, whether society likes it or not, so they might as well be taught the critical thinking necessary to understand its messages, according to an article in City Life magazine.

According to the the description of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation event from the group’s YouTube channel, in "a cultural moment where 'Don't Say Gay' and anti-trans bills are being advanced in state legislatures, and fundamental sexual rights – like access to safe abortion procedures – are being threatened, age-appropriate, value-informed, medically-accurate, progressive sexuality education can be a powerful tool for exploring issues of personal identity, body autonomy, pleasure equity, and sexual justice."

Vernacchio said one of the things to celebrate about today’s culture is that children have so many more options open to them beyond "simply whether they feel like a boy or a girl, or whether they identify as gay, straight or bisexual. Our understandings of both gender and orientation have greatly expanded in our culture."

He said that the ever-increasing list of identity labels children have to choose from allows young people "to find a more precise way to describe their own experience."

"What it's also brought about is greater latitude, and experimenting with different identities. It's not uncommon today for young people to try out different labels and different pronouns and different relationships in search of their truth."

Vernacchio did not mention how "experimenting with different identities" and trying out "different labels and pronouns" often results in children being chemically castrated and having healthy body parts amputated in pediatric gender clinics all over the U.S.

"The classroom has always been a place to spark wonder, imagination, transformation, and growth in young people. Good education leads learners out of oppression and into possibility," the event description read.

In 2021, Vernacchio and Friends' Central were awarded a $250,000 grant to launch a project called "Healthy Relationships and Consent Education," according to The Inquirer. The sex-ed teacher expanded the notion of consent to include any situation where we interact with another person's property, body, or reputation.

Vernacchio gave a TED Talk in 2012 that went viral in which he replaced the traditional baseball metaphor for sex that refers to "scoring" and "stealing bases," with a metaphor about ordering pizza which involves "shared pleasure, discussion and agreement, fulfillment and enjoyment."