A Kentucky vocational school principal is facing child porn charges — a decade after he banned books for “soft pornography” and homosexual content, according to a report.
Philip Todd Wilson, 54, was busted Tuesday after state troopers received a tip that he was in possession of explicit images involving a minor, and possibly distributing the revolting photos, Kentucky State Police announced.
Wilson, principal of the Clark County Area Technology Center in Winchester, was later hit with 15 counts each of distributing and possessing child porn, police said.
He is no longer employed by the school, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
In 2009, Wilson was the principal of another school in Kentucky when parents complained about several young-adult novels taught alongside classics like “The Canterbury Tales” and “Beowulf,” claiming risqué topics like sex, child abuse, suicide and drug use were unsuitable for some sophomore and senior students, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
The books that reportedly were challenged included “Twisted” by Laurie Halse Anderson, and “Lessons from a Dead Girl” by Jo Knowles, who couldn’t stop herself from noting the irony of the accusations now facing Wilson.
“I was a very new author at the time all this happened and the press coverage was overwhelming,” Knowles wrote on Facebook. “I was horrified by the accusations he and the superintendent made.”
Wilson successfully fought to ban Knowles’ work at Montgomery County High School for “homosexual and other inappropriate content,” she said.
Putting her take bluntly, Knowles added: “As I said to some friends last night when I got the news, ‘You can’t make this sh-t up.’”
Anderson, whose book eventually was pulled from teacher Risha Mullins’ classroom at Montgomery County High along with three others, said Wilson sought to ban her writing over concerns that it was pornographic
“I wrote an op-ed in his newspaper & said anyone who finds the rape of a 14-year-old sexually exciting has serious problems,” Anderson wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “Poisonous leaders use their power to protect their evil.”
Wilson, of Winchester, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. He was booked on Tuesday into the Clark County Detention Center on $25,000 bond, but was no longer in custody as of early Friday, jail records show.
A judge has entered a not guilty plea on Wilson’s behalf. He’s set to return to court for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, the Winchester Sun reports.
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