Teacher Distributes Planned Parenthood Flyer Endorsing Risky Sexual Behaviors to 11-Year-Old Students
Sex education serves its purpose when it teaches children risk-avoidance behaviors that equip them with the necessary skills to make responsible decisions about their sexual health.
When schools teach this material to students, the curriculum should also be geared toward the children’s ages, lest they be exposed to inappropriate material. But even when the topic is toned down to accommodate the students’ lack of maturity, the material should not motivate children to independently explore pressing questions about sex.
Unfortunately, instead of encouraging open dialogues between children and their parents, some schools opt to teach their version of sex education in secret.
And when teachers are making decisions without parental involvement, then it is hardly surprising when the material being presented is completely unsuitable for children.
According to a Monday Fox News report, a middle school teacher in Tacoma, Washington, distributed a Planned Parenthood flyer to 11-year-old students that promoted inappropriate sexual behaviors.
Seattle radio host Jason Rantz told the outlet that the school district claims it was a “mistake” and that the teacher found the flyer in a binder of “otherwise acceptable and approved material” to pass out to students.
To Rantz, however, exposing children to material like this “clearly shows a lack of judgment.”
The flyer reportedly informed students how to undergo testing for sexually transmitted diseases and obtain an abortion or birth control without parental permission.
In addition, the flyer informed the middle schoolers that the state’s age of consent starts at age 11, as long as the sexual partner is no more than two years older.
According to Rantz, parents were far from pleased when they learned about the content their children were learning.
“They’re saying that this goes too far,” the radio host said.
“They’re saying that this is not the kind of content that the school should be teaching, this should be left up to the parents.”
The Rantz interview is below:
According to Rantz, a school district official told one concerned parent at Stewart Middle School that the flyer was left over from a previous program.
“The flyer is not part of our curriculum and should not have been sent home with students,” Eric Hogan, assistant director of secondary education at the Tacoma School District he wrote in the email Rantz published in an article on MyNorthwest.com.
“Previously, Planned Parenthood taught within our schools and supplied the flyer that was distributed to students,” the email continued, according to Rantz. “We discovered a binder of curriculum materials was left behind for an incoming teacher to use for this year, and this flyer was in the binder. Not realizing the flyer wasn’t approved material, the teacher sent it home with students.”
This is far from the first time that parents have objected to their child’s school district exposing children to Planned Parenthood’s controversial sex education curriculum.
As WRAL-TV reported in October 2017, for instance, North Carolina parents voiced objections to the abortion vendor’s “Get Real” sex education program during a Cumberland County Board of Education meeting.
The material would have taught 11- to 14-year-old students how to explore their sexual identity and use various birth control methods. However, after parents turned out in force to object, the board agreed to scrap the program in February 2018, WTVD-TV reported.
The same year, on the other side of the country, parents in the Washington state community of Grandview turned out to protest the local school board’s decision to implement Planned Parenthood’s “Get Real” curriculum, according to KIMA-TV. The school board there also decided against using the program and continue with its previous sex ed curriculum.
However, according to the pro-life group Live Action, the district’s curriculum was similar in many ways to the Planned Parenthood program and even had the same publisher.
Schools should not educate students in a manner that violates the ethical principles parents wish to instill in their children, and parents have a right to know and object to what their kids are learning.
The family unit is integral to providing children with guidance when they are confronted with challenging questions about sex.
Instead of sowing seeds of distrust between vulnerable kids and their parents, sex education programs should urge students to seek answers from their parents.
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