By Donna M. Perry,Staff Writer

WILTON – It is not school staff’s intention to have sixth-graders selling ladies’ underwear and negligees to raise funds for their annual trip to Portland, Principal Darlene Paine said Monday.

They plan to contact parents and ask them not to let children sell those items.

An Avon catalog that was sent home with students this month for the annual fundraiser does have several pages that feature a set of thongs, bras, underwear and chemises, which look like short nighties, Paine said.

The principal of both the Academy Hill School and Cushing School in Wilton said she approved the fundraiser without looking at the catalog, a mistake she said she will not repeat.

“I never asked to preview the catalog. I’ve learned my lesson,” she said. “I was thinking cologne, jewelry, anti-wrinkle cream … and then it was brought to our attention by a parent.”

Paine said she knew Avon sold some clothing but not underwear and nighties.

Wilton parent Karen Corbin said Monday that her 12-year-old son came home recently and was talking about selling G-strings, which are called thongs in the catalog. There is a side view of a woman’s waist in the book and the line of the thong, Corbin said, with a butterfly shown in the small of her back but you cannot see the woman’s buttocks.

Corbin said she didn’t mind the school sending home the catalog, but after previewing the items she was shocked to see some of the merchandise that the sixth-graders were expected to sell.

“It appalls me that it was sent home with elementary school children,” Corbin said. “These are sixth-graders. This material should have been checked out. They’re sending this home with sixth-graders who are going through puberty.”

Children see enough on television, from other media and older children, she said, and they don’t need this type of material coming home from school.

The catalog is 179 pages, Paine said, and teachers and others involved in trying to raise money for the trip to the Planetarium, a television news station to discuss careers and a fancy restaurant were surprised to find out there was lingerie in the catalog.

They’ve used the Avon catalog for fundraising for the trip in the past. The trip is sponsored by the Wilton Lions Club and the Parent-Teacher Forum, Paine said.

The principal said she plans to meet with the sixth-grade teachers and discuss how to rectify the situation.

“I don’t think kids should be selling these things but it is a tiny fraction of the catalog,” she said.

Paine said she plans to send a letter home to parents asking them not to let their children sell the items on those pages or to rip those pages out of the catalog, Paine said.

Adults will preview the orders, she said, and if any of the items on those pages have already been ordered they will contact the purchaser and ask that they purchase those items directly from an Avon representative.

“I am sorry to have offended anyone. It wasn’t our intention. It was an accidental oversight,” Paine said.