S/M workshop for Canadian youth upsets parents

A United Way workshop that set out to teach teens as young as 14 how to practice safe sadomasochistic sex has a number of parents in Barrie, Ontario, up in arms, The Toronto Star reports. “I’m mortified that children were exposed to this damaging, horrific perversion,” said Mary Lou Butkovich, who pulled her 16-year-old daughter from the series of workshops when she learned the S/M workshop was a part of it. “I don’t think kids really need to know a great deal about this practice.” Organizer Gina Frederick said the workshop, which was taught by the producer of the annual Mr. Leatherman competition in Toronto, was included because health officials had received a number of questions from concerned teens about S/M. “Such a practice involves vast amounts of knowledge, and this workshop is designed to provide information on health decisions. It is not a how-to thing.”