Education
A principal who banned LGBTQ books, calling them inappropriate, now faces child porn charges

By Reis Thebault
November 13, 2019 at 8:56 p.m. EST

A Kentucky school principal who became infamous for his efforts to ban books with “homosexual content” from classrooms has been indicted on child pornography charges.

Phillip Todd Wilson, who used to run the Clark County Area Technology Center east of Lexington, is facing 17 counts of child pornography possession and distribution after state police arrested him in August. He was fired from the school shortly after his arrest, Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Jessica Fletcher said.

Wilson attracted police attention after someone told his facility’s school resource officer that the principal had sent them 15 pictures via social media and text messages, the Winchester Sun newspaper reported. In an interview with police, Wilson admitted to sending images to two females and authorities confiscated his cellphone and laptop.

Ten years ago, as principal of nearby Montgomery County High School, Wilson was at the center of a statewide and national debate over the censorship of books that featured LGBTQ characters and references to sex, suicide and drug use. Wilson and other school officials successfully barred at least four young-adult novels, arguing their explicit content was inappropriate for high school students.
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Samantha Schmidt contributed to this report.

Reis Thebault is a reporter covering national and breaking news. He has worked on the local desks of the Boston Globe and the Columbus Dispatch. He joined The Washington Post in June 2018. Follow https://twitter.com/reisthebault