Parents in Pennsylvania are turning 50 shades of red after middle-school students were given puzzles based on the graphic-bondage book and film, "Fifty Shades of Grey."
The incident took place Monday at Monessen Middle School in Monessen, Pennsylvania, with at least five youngsters receiving the word-search puzzle.
WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh interviewed James Carter, the parent of an 8th-grader at the school, who said the puzzle was replete with explicit sexual terms.
"I asked my son who passed it out, and he said the teacher passed it out," Carter said. "I don't think this is what they should be doing in the 8th-grade level."
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The station redacted the most graphic of the terms, but others that were displayed include: spanking, submissive, leather cuffs, manacles, intercourse, demons and bondage.
Watch WTAE-TV's report:
Carter took his concerns to the school on Tuesday, but could not get a satisfactory answer about the word-search.
Monessen School District officials met Tuesday night, but said they couldn't comment on who handed out the puzzles, calling it a personnel matter.
"We just learned of this issue yesterday," said school-board solicitor John Toohey. "An investigation will occur."
Roberta Bergstedt is a school-board member who was not present at the meeting, but she emailed a comment to WTAE, saying the puzzles were passed out by mistake.
Officials would not comment on whether any teachers or staff had been disciplined.
The film version of the best-selling book by E.L. James opens this weekend, starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, who is the daughter of celebrities Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.
Ironically, Griffith posted a note on Facebook Tuesday, saying, "My daughter Dakota Johnson forbids me from seeing 'Fifty Shades of Grey.'"
The film is said to have 20 minutes of sex scenes in the course of its 125 minutes.