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Arroyo Grande teacher takes students to nude beach

March 2, 2010

By KAREN VELIE

An Arroyo Grande High School photography teacher allegedly took four students on an unapproved field trip to a local nude beach, and now some parents are upset.

“I think it was bizarre,” said one parent who asked to remain anonymous because of her daughter’s discomfort with the situation. “It was not appropriate.”

While some of the teenage girls’ parents had signed broad waivers allowing photography teacher Allen Fraser to take their children off campus for photo taking, some had not signed the releases.

On Feb. 17, Fraser asked four of his first and second period students to accompany him to Pirates Cove, a nude beach with a reputation as a hook-up spot for homosexuals. Fraser drove two of the girls to the beach in his car and two others followed in their own car, according to parents.

When they arrived at the beach, the girls were instructed to shoot photos.

Currently, a lawsuit filed by San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Deputy John Franklin claims that, because of a brush with a masturbating homosexual he encountered at Pirates Cove during an undercover sting operation, he suffers from mental and emotional distress.

Arroyo Grande High School Principal Ryan Pinkerton told CalCoastNews he was unaware of the teacher’s excursion to Pirates Cove.

“Just going there is inappropriate,” Pinkerton said.

Pinkerton had said he would look into the issue and respond. However, his staff then forwarded all requests for comment to the district office. Officials at the Lucia Mar School District were unavailable for comment.


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This is ridiculous we all wanted to go there he didn’t drive anyone by himself the whole class was there! we did not even go on the beach we rock climbed want proof? here http://www.flickr.com/photos/44649762@N07/4368438438/in/pool-1296853@N25

Yes that is me rock climbing there it wasn’t frasers choice to go! The whole class wanted to! whoever told the press this wasn’t thinking because obviously we did a class vote to go there and everyone voted yes! stupid thing fraser is a great teacher and inspires us all I love what I do and he helped me at it!


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I know this spot and it’s so far away from any nudity, this is a joke seems the girls like taking pictures of well clothed hansom young men, now put that in your pipe and smoke it, good job photog. There are a few who can see beauty, where other people say there is only trash.


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When I read the first paragraph, I thought in my head. “Where do you get all of your information at?”

I’m one of the students that attend the class, and I can ASSURE you that there was more than just 4 girls. Both the photography classes went there during 1st-2nd and 3rd-4th. There was noone on the beach, and it was a pretty damn cold morning. You guys are idiots for thinking this is actually legitimate. And what does a masturbating homosexual have ANYTHING to do with this? The author of this article is pretty much setting this website up for a massive fallout.


tl;dr?


You got your facts wrong.


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I think that most people are missing the potentially bigger issue. I’m not going to defend the teacher, as clearly it was an error in judgement, but the real question here is how egregious was it? I pose this question because I want to caution people about the risk of actually harming education because of over-reaction. Some of the best teachers I had were also the ones that sometimes broke the rules, and if every situation causes a huge uproar it really creates a situation where teachers become so paranoid about liability and such that it sanitizes the education and scares good people away. I offer you this example… I had a teacher in high school who, on a trip, looked the other way when another student and I were smoking cigarettes. He did give us a lecture, but that was the extent of it, and he didn’t tell us what to do or not to do. This guy was a FANTASTIC teacher though, and his class was closer to a college level class than almost all of my other high school classes.


So that being said, it may have been poor judgement of him to look the other way, but it would be shame for this teacher to be evaluated on a poor decision whilst other incompetent teachers remained in good standing because they filled the role of babysitter.


Some of the brightest and most effective people in the world make some of the dumbest mistakes. If these girls felt uncomfortable in the sense that they felt this teacher was trying to do something creepy, that’s one thing, but if they felt that he was just being edgy and using poor judgement, then it would be counterproductive to focus on this incident while lousy teachers who operated within the guidelines 100% of the time continue to plague our schools and teach our children nothing at best, incorrect information at worst.


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There weren not just girls there! did you read my post!!


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I’m a student in the class and this story paints a totally false picture of what took place. First of all it wasn’t 4 girls who went there the whole entire class went, boys and girls. about twenty kids and our teacher. And second there wasn’t a soul at the place. And for those who say that we could have went somewhere else I have a valid argument for that too, You can’t just shoot pictures of the same places all the time. As a photographer you always have to be going to new places. The site will probably delete this post as soon as they see it because its criticizing their article but they should know they are making an innocent person look like a pervert or something which is wrong and if you delete this post you are deleting the truth as well as making somebody miserable because of false accusations.


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Did they actually go down the trail to the beach, or did they stay up near the parking lot and explore the cave?

The area has quite a bit of history attached to it, especially smugglers.

If they went down the trail then I think there is an issue.

If not, then what’s the beef?


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It’s inappropriate. Even the parking lot. If it has history attached to it, a teacher can have thier students research it on the internet or give a power point presentation IN CLASS. You’re killing me.


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The area around the parking lot is worse than the actual beach IMO. There are some creepy people that hang out up there.


But this is all just tabloidy gossip stuff, so far we don’t even know if it really happened.


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Vagabond we agree, if they didn’t go to the hot dog roast on the beach what’s all the fuss about, anyone negative on this article has more to learn and should go there and lay in the sun for a while, most relaxing, try it you might like it, and don’t demote, promote! UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN THERE! If anybody thinks this guy let any of these girls even see a hotdog, think again I doubt if, he would be that foolish, to assume does make an ass out of you and me.


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For the love of God. This is not about the right to be nude, the right to take a picture of a nude person, how old you have to be to see a nude person, it’s about an authoritative figure acting inappropriately. I don’t care if you hippies want to parade around naked all day and take pictures of each other but a teacher who takes his students, male and/or female to a known nude beach for ANY reason is inappropriate. You are not going to tell me that the teacher “did not know the area” or “it was for art” because we all know that is bullsh*t. I don’t care how he tries to excuse it, it doesn’t fly.

Also, why was the principal not aware that one of his teached was not at school?

And parents, please teach your kids, especially your daughters, to have some common sense. It should be a red flag to someone when your teacher asks you to go to Pirates Cove with him.


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the whole class went. the parents signed wavers. no one went on or around the nude beach or saw anyone nude. and he didnt ask us to go, the class picked the location. get your facts straight.


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I want to first off say, if you’re going to make such horrible, ridiculous claims to please have your facts right. I am in the photography class, this trip to Pirates Cove was a group shoot in which both photography classes all went. I am loving the fact that the author of this article wants to place emphasis on there being 4 girls only, which is highly incorrect. There were no nudists at the time of the shoot nor did we even trek close to where the nudists would be, also being told not to venture over there by the teacher. The shoots purpose was purely for nature photography. I, as well as the entirety of the photography classes are appalled by the embarrassing, false, hateful accusations being placed upon our photography teacher. The teacher had no ill intentions when doing this group shoot and the class itself, not the teacher, made the decision of going to pirates cove. Let it be known that I will not allow this ignorant rant, false at that, to destroy our teachers as well as our schools reputation. I am surrounded by students that look highly upon the teacher, sometimes seeing him as a role model. These students also put every bit of effort into their photography. The teacher nor the students would never even think to perform the actions that this article is insinuating. How could only 4 students go if there is a class of 30? There were not 3 cars, but 9 cars total, including both periods. In the beginning of the year the students AS WELL AS THE PARENTS signed waivers allowing students to leave campus to shoot. We will do everything in our power to make sure these accusations are set right. Never forgive never forget.


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I have to a say, reading most of these posts give some real interesting points of view. Most of you are already painting this guy as some molester, freak, homo, whatever, while the other half could care less why this guy took part of his class to shoot pictures at a nude beach, area.. No matter how you paint this picture, it looks bad. Period. But then again, you are the same people that will be screaming when the next teacher will be caught messing with one of your girls. Then, out of the blue, the writer adds, “Currently, a lawsuit filed by San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Deputy John Franklin claims that, because of a brush with a masturbating homosexual he encountered at Pirates Cove during an undercover sting operation, he suffers from mental and emotional distress.” What does this have to do with this? Then this person goes on to say, I will be on the Dave Congalton KVEC radio show at 6 p.m. to discuss this issue. Kind of like, hey, I’m on a witch hunt here and don’t have nothing better to do, so i’m going on the local crap station to go stir another pot.. Karen reminds me of that old lady that used to live next door and would always be looking out the window and when she saw the least bite of something, she would run to that persons house to report it.


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Also, Karen, the paragraph about the sheriff having “mental and emotional stress” has absolutely nothing to do with this issue, at all. I laugh at your petty attempt to compare a nature photography shoot with homosexuality. The points about homosexuals are not needed in this article. Yellow journalism for the lose.


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