'My son didn't even know what oral was!' Connecticut school district is left with pie on its face after asking eighth-graders to share their sexual desires in the form of pizza toppings in bizarre school assignment

 A school district in Enfield, Connecticut was left with pie on its face after asking eighth-graders to share their sexual desires in the form of pizza toppings.

'Now that you know this metaphor for sex, let's explore your preferences!' explained the instruction pamphlet distributed to students in a recent health class at John F. Kennedy Middle School.

'Draw and color your favorite type of pizza,' it added. 'What's your favorite style of pizza? Your favorite toppings? What are your pizza no-nos? Now mirror these preferences in relation to sex!'

As if that wasn't explicit enough, the instructions offered some suggestions.

'Here are some examples:

Likes: Cheese = Kissing.

Dislikes: Olives = Giving oral.'

A school district in Enfield, Connecticut asked eighth graders to share their sexual desires in the form of pizza toppings for a school assignment. 'What's your favorite style of pizza? Your favorite toppings? What are your pizza no-nos? Now mirror these preferences in relation to sex!' the pamphlet read

One parent whose 13-year-old son was in the offending health class in December told DailyMail.com she was mortified when she asked her boy how his day went and he explained the hidden meanings of pepperoni and olives.

'When he told me about it, I was absolutely shocked,' the mother, who asked not to be identified, said. 'He's 13 years old! What gives teachers the right to have that conversation with our children?'

An Enfield group called Parents Defending Education reached out to Brie Quartin (pictured) the district's Health and Physical Education Coordinator, to complain about the assignment. Quartin responded in an email by apologizing and blaming it on a technical error

Her son told DailyMail.com that he didn't even know the meaning of the word 'oral' before that class.

'I didn't know what it meant so I looked it up on my school iPad,' the boy said, sheepishly. 'I just sort of laughed. I was surprised.'

After class, some of the students went home and told their parents. Soon the pages were shared on Facebook, and the entire community got wind of it.

An Enfield group called Parents Defending Education reached out to Brie Quartin, the district's Health and Physical Education Coordinator, to complain about the assignment. 

Quartin responded in an email by apologizing and blaming it on a technical error.

'The incorrect version, as opposed to the revised version of this assignment was mistakenly posted on our grade 8 curriculum page, and was inadvertently used for instruction to grade 8 Health classes,' Quartin wrote in the email, which was posted on the parent group's website. 'I caught the error after our curriculum revision in June but failed to post the intended version.

'The correct version of the assignment is for students to work in small groups to craft a pizza with toppings (no behaviors associated with said toppings) that would make everyone happy/comfortable using non-verbal communication only,' Quartin added. 

'Students are then asked to reflect and discuss how thoughts or feelings can be confusing or miscontrued [sic], if we rely on non-verbal cues/communication alone. The parallel to be taught here is that when discussing pizza topping it is important that your preferences are clearly communicated to avoid any misunderstanding. This discussion then leads into how students can identify when consent is either present or not.'

Giselle Moore, the group member who corresponded with Quartin and previously had two children in the district, said this was more than a mistake.

'This went all the way down the chain of command,' Moore told DailyMail.com.

'I find this all very disturbing,' she continued. 'This is stuff that would normally be discussed in a safe place in the home. This is not the school's job to talk to children about explicit sexual behavior. The school is just normalizing this behavior, hypersexualizing children.'

Sophia Arel, the mother of an JFK Middle School eighth grader, told DailyMail.com that she decided pulled her own daughter out of the health class this semester after learning about the pizza assignment.

'They removed that part of the assignment, but I don't know what else is going to slip through the cracks,' she told DailyMail.com. 'It's vulgar and it's just inappropriate. First of all, you're 13, and you don't even know your sex preferences yet. And when these kids answer these questions, where does that information get shared? Who's interested?'

The instruction pamphlet was distributed to students in a recent health class at John F. Kennedy Middle School (pictured)

Enfield Public Schools Superintendent Christopher Drezek said during the school board meeting on Tuesday that the assignment was sent 'inadvertently' to eighth-graders, and said it was a 'mistake'

'I don't think there's anything wrong with learning about sex and consent at all,' Arel added. 

Superintendent Christopher Drezek said on Tuesday that the assignment was sent to eighth-graders by 'mistake'

'When I was young, we learned about the basics like contraception and things like that. But we weren't being asked what our preferences were and do we dislike giving oral. It's just so weird. My husband, when he learned about this, he was like ''I wish there was the pizza assignment when we were kids.'' He was joking, but was actually really pissed.'

At a school board meeting Tuesday night, as some parents complained about school mask mandates, attention turned to pizza. 

One woman reportedly delivered a pie and was later confronted by audience members and removed by police.

The debate continued among parents.

'This assignment is prompting kids to become sexually active before their time,' argued Tracey Jarvis, of Enfield, NBC Connecticut reported.

'This particular assignment was obviously not appropriate, but it was not intended to cause harm to any child,' said Marcie Taliceo of Enfield

Enfield Public Schools Superintendent Christopher Drezek said during the  school board meeting on Tuesday that the assignment was sent 'inadvertently' and it was a 'mistake.'

'The simple truth was it was a mistake. And I know that there are some who may not believe that. I know there are some who don't necessarily maybe want that answer,' Drezek said. 'In this particular case, I didn't even get a chance to because the person who made the mistake jumped ahead of it before I was even notified that it had happened.'