A hygiene packet sent home with fifth-grade boys at a Bedford County elementary school held more than the usual deodorant and toothpaste.

A pamphlet in the packet marketed by Old Spice included an unexpected lesson in sex education, including topics such as wet dreams and erections, said Otter River Elementary School spokesman Ryan Edwards.

School officials did not review the written material in the promotional packets before they were distributed to 27 boys at the school in Goode, Edwards said.

An outraged parent sent letters to the county's board of supervisors and school board, alerting school officials and prompting the school system to issue letters of apology Tuesday to parents of all 40 fifth-grade students at Otter River.

"I would have been very upset if it had been my son," said Forest District Supervisor John Sharp, who is the father of four young children. "If my son had been in that class and brought back that material I literally would have gone that evening and knocked on [Superintendent James] Blevins' door."

Bedford County Public Schools have a policy allowing parents to opt their children out of any sex education curriculum.

Sharp said parents' rights were undermined by the packet incident because they weren't given advance notice or allowed to refuse acceptance of the packets.

The school nurse has ordered the packets for several years to accompany physical education lessons on personal hygiene. This year's packets contained sex education information school officials have deemed age inappropriate.

Edwards described it as "the typical stuff you would teach a child whose body was going through the maturation process."

Packets for girls, which are provided by Always feminine care products, did not contain similar content.

"Because we trusted these companies, we trusted these packets to be as they always had been," Edwards said. "We are going to have to be more diligent in our policing of our material we distribute to our children even from reputable companies such as this."

The school system's director of instruction, Tammy Parlier, said nurses and physical education staff have been reminded of the need to preview written material before it is distributed.