New York, November 10 (ANI): An English teacher was suspended for providing his students with a graphic short story about masturbation written by “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk.

Greg Van Voorhis had given the story to read to students preparing for the English Regents exam at The Bronx School of Law and Finance in Marble Hill.

The material written for Playboy magazine told the tale of a teenage boy’s use of a carrot in a sex act on himself and autoerotic asphyxiation.

Even though students were made to return the copies of the text at the end of the class, the principal of the school Evan Schwartz came to know about it as the gossip had spread in the school.

“We found out about it kind of through the grapevine. It’s a small school. It’s hard to keep a secret,” the New York Post quoted Schwartz as saying.

Now the matter is being investigated by the Department of Education, while Voorish has been reassigned out of the classroom.

Schwartz added: “I deemed for someone else to decide whether it was inappropriate. I had to report it.”

Meanwhile, students are protesting the suspension of Voorish.

They have started a letter-writing campaign to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and created a “Save Mr. V” page on Facebook.

Fifteen -year-old junior Omar Caminero said: “We’re not little kids. We are in high school. It’s not like we’ve never read anything like that — we have.”

Another student Frankchesca Jimenez, 16, said: “He didn’t mean it to be anything other than something we could learn from.”

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the DOE refused to comment over the issue. (ANI)