One of the most important duties of parents is to protect their children from harmful sexual values and behavior. Yet many public schools force potentially harmful, sometimes shockingly explicit, sex education on their students.
Most of the time, parents have no control over the content of these classes. Occasionally, a group of parents finds out about a particularly unpleasant sex ed class and protests to the principal or local school board. The class may be dropped, only to be replaced by another class teaching equally objectionable material.
The arrogant attitude of school authorities towards parents on this issue shows their anti-parent bias and their disregard for the rights of parents to control the values that are taught to their children.
Many school authorities insist that children need comprehensive sex education from kindergarten through high school. They believe that parents cannot be trusted because they have shameful feelings about sex or have “outdated” moral or sexual values. School authorities, claiming to know more about sex education, usurp the role of parents, supposedly for the good of the children. In doing so, they show contempt for parental rights, values, and common sense.
Many sex education classes indoctrinate children with sexual values that can cause irreparable damage. For example, these classes often promote the idea that most sexual behaviors are acceptable, including adultery, homosexuality, masturbation, and premarital sex.
The sex ed instructor simply tells the kids to “be careful” or use their “common sense” when they engage in these behaviors. As if we can depend on teenagers with raging hormones to be careful or use their common sense. The rising rate of teen pregnancy in this country belies this notion.
Horror stories about sex education classes and flagrant violations of parental rights confront us across the country. Here are just four of those stories:
o On March 19, 1996, a public school in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania had 59 sixth grade girls undergo a genital examination as part of a routine physical. The school did not ask for parental consent. During the exam, school officials blocked the exit doors and refused to allow the girls to cry and beg to call their parents.
o In Stephens County, Georgia, parents were shocked to discover that a public school staff member had taken their fourteen- and fifteen-year-old daughters to a birth control clinic without their knowledge. The county clinic administered AIDS tests and Pap smears to the girls and gave them birth control pills and condoms. The school denied parents access to the test results and defended their actions by claiming that the counselor believed she was doing what was best for the girls.
o The Pacific Institute of Justice filed a lawsuit on behalf of the parents against Novato [California] Unified School District for authorizing pro-gay performances without notice or consent. According to the Pacific Justice Institute press release, “The presentations, titled “Cootie Shots,” exposed elementary school children as young as seven years old to skits containing gay and lesbian propositions. The presentations were followed by question and answer sessions. responses about what constitutes ‘normal’ families and acceptance of those who choose the homosexual lifestyle”. 6 (see Notes on “Public Schools, Public Threat”)
o Carol (last name withheld for privacy), a schoolteacher, couldn’t believe what she was being asked to teach in her sex education class. Her curriculum required her to show second graders photographs of naked boys and girls and ask them to name body parts. School authorities told Carol and hers fellow elementary school teachers that there were no absolute moral rules, so she shouldn’t worry about what she had to teach the children.
Parents, it would be advisable to periodically ask your children if their school is giving them sex education classes and what the school is teaching them in these classes.
If these classes force your children to sit through shocking, disgusting, or embarrassing sex education material, you can do something about it. Many states have parental notification laws that allow you to require the school to “opt out” (remove) your children from these classes. More information on this important topic can be found in “Public Schools, Public Threat.”
