Does Graphic NYC Sex Ed Curriculum Program Infringe on Parental Rights?
- Posted on October 24, 2011 at 7:33pm by
Liz Klimas
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In 2004, NPR reported a poll, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, as finding that “the debate over whether to have sex education in American schools is over.“ The poll found that only 7 percent of parents believed sex ed should not be taught in school and that ”parents are generally content with whatever sex education is offered.”
But today, seven years later, it appears the debate does continue.
In August, the New York Times reported that for the first time in two decades, New York City public school students would be required to take a semester sex ed in either the 6th or 7th grade and a second class in the 9th or 10th grade.
The New York Post recently got their hands on one of the recommended sex education workbooks that will be used in the classroom next year stating that assignments include: finding stores that sell condoms and how much they cost; researching where how to get to a clinic that provides birth control and tests for STDs; and “risk” cards that allow the children to learn the relative safety of varying degrees of sexual activity.
How young is too young and who deems what's appropriate? (Photo: Chicago Tribune via Fox News)
The Post goes on to report that even though the curriculum includes assignments such as these and refers students to a Columbia University website called “Go Ask Alice” — which details sexual positions, types of sex that don’t include intercourse and more — the Department of Education maintains it is promoting abstinence first.
The Times and the Post both report that parents have the “right” to opt their children out of lessons about contraception methods. An op-ed in The New York Times last week calls this opt-out “very limited” in terms of parental control. The op-ed contributors Robert P. George and Melissa Morchella state that it is undeniable the curriculum is “sexualizing children” a younger and younger ages and that mandates such as this “violate parents’ rights”:
But no one can plausibly claim that teaching middle-schoolers about mutual masturbation is “neutral” between competing views of morality; the idea of “value free” sex education was exploded as a myth long ago. The effect of such lessons is as much to promote a certain sexual ideology among the young as it is to protect their health.
But beyond rival moral visions, the new policy raises a deeper issue: Should the government force parents — at least those not rich enough to afford private schooling — to send their children to classes that may contradict their moral and religious values on matters of intimacy and personal conduct?
[...]
Unless a broader parental opt out is added, New York City’s new policies will continue to usurp parents’ just (and constitutionally recognized) authority. Turning a classroom into a mandatory catechism lesson for a contested ideology is a serious violation of parental rights, and citizens of every ideological hue should stand up and oppose it.
In its August article, the New York Times reported principals bracing themselves for parents’ discontent over the classes:
“We’re going to have to be the bridge between the chancellor’s requirements and the community,” said Casimiro Cibelli, principal of Middle School 142 in the Baychester section of the Bronx, where many of the students come from immigrant, religious families with traditional views on sex. “Hopefully, we’ll allay their concerns because of their trust in us.”
Watch this local news report that includes parents voicing concern, but also a middle school-aged boy stating “it’s important to learn about these things”:
Earlier this month, The Blaze reported similar controversial curriculum being proposed in Canada, much to parents’ dismay. Many states have adopted mandates for at least HIV/AIDS education; New York began including this in health class curriculum in 1987. The Times reports that a sex education mandate was passed by the city in the 1980s but was defeated by opposition.
A report updated this month by the National Conference of State Legislatures finds that 21 states and the District of Columbia require schools to teach sex ed, which includes HIV education, and 17 of these states require information to be “medically accurate” and/or age appropriate. In terms of parental rights, 35 states allow parental involvement in the classes; 37 states and the District of Columbia have parental opt-out; and three states require parental consent.
In terms of sources of sex education from the teenager’s perspective, Guttmacher Institute reported early this year that of the ages 15-19, 93 percent had received education on STDs, 89 percent on HIV and 84 percent on abstinence. The majority (87 percent) of public and private high schools taught abstinence as the best way to avoid pregnancy and diseases but 66 percent of high schools also taught about condom use and 39 percent taught students how to use them.
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Comments (62)
phillipwgirard
Posted on October 25, 2011 at 12:13amthe only sex education in my school back then was a date with the class BIMBO. even without that, i knew what went where and why.
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on October 25, 2011 at 11:35amLittle Johnny can’t spell condom or tell you how much change back from a $5.00 bill he would have if they were 3 / $1 and he bought 12 but by golly he will be able to know all of the positions in the Kama-Sutra (SP apologies). Sexualizing children is so rampant – this course borders on child porn and it ridiculous
Report Post »JEANNIEMAC
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 11:37pmIf pornography was sold to children, it would be illegal and result in jail time for the offender. Yet, our children are subjected to filth and perversion under the disguise of “education”. Transfer your children to parochial schools, where they will learn to read and be taught morality. Demand vouchers from the state for the tax money now used to support the public schools.
Report Post »aicardi
Posted on October 25, 2011 at 12:00amAgreed! Education has been going amuck for decades now. It is time that conservatives become teachers and push this progressive brain washers out!
Report Post »Free2speakRN
Posted on October 25, 2011 at 12:05pmWho even really knows what goes on in these classes. How about parents that cannot be there because of work. How about what is ‘progressively’ being taught to early grade schoolers. Now, That’s Progress!
Report Post »I don’t trust them.
ZengaPA65
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 11:31pmThe expressions on the kids are priceless.
Report Post »RebeccaG
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 10:00pmA dirty old man (or young man, for that matter) introduces your 6th grade daughter to condoms-and how to use them-how to get an abortion, and “risk” cards that allow the children to learn the relative safety of varying degrees of sexual activity” (i.e. pictures of sex acts. What we have here is state sponsored pedophelia. For many years I have said ‘they’ won’t be satisfied until every child in this country is molested. I believe I‘m getting closer to a definition of ’they’.
Report Post »Still Looking
Posted on October 25, 2011 at 1:12amRead about Alfred Kinsey. Dr. Judith Reisman has done some amazing research on this sick, sick man who interviewed sexual predators and pedophiles to create a profile of “healthy” sexual activity for children as young as a few months old. It is sick and disgusting stuff that will never leave your head. But Kinsey is revered by Progressives because his research destroys morality and the family. They worship at his feet and uphold his “studies” as sacrosanct. All sex education that focuses on intercourse and not just educating students about puberty is based on Kinsey’s “research.” It is all designed to take away children’s natural purity and innocence so they will be more open to sexual experimentation. This is by Progressive design.
Report Post »God-Gold-Guns
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:58pmI’m 15,and home schooled. This is a bunch of liberal crap. Another Job taken away from parents.
Report Post »spinelessdave
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:56pmNo education just mind perversion (for the kids!)
Report Post »God-Gold-Guns
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 10:16pmI see it more and more everyday. Seems that these kind of topics are what most public school kids talk about.
Report Post »michele.d
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:52pmWhat about conservative Christian teachers who are reluctant union members? As an elementary school teacher, I would like to know what my rights are when this trash makes its way to my grade level. Will I be forced to teach something that is an abomination to everything I value? I believe this is where the rubber meets the road, and I wonder if my wonderful union will support me….or will they be too busy high-fiving the OWS skanks?
Report Post »RebeccaG
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:48pmTwo words–PRIVATE SCHOOLS!
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 10:05pmmajority of people in this country have no money for private school and have to work (both mom and dad in these tough times) thereby not having an option to stay home and homeschool. there has to be a way for regular folks to opt out of the indoctrination centers. children are not liberal science and sociology experiments. we need a different system for kids whether it be the public schools go online for kids to do Christian based or secular based homeschool there with a teacher supervising. it is just out of control
Report Post »God-Gold-Guns
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 11:02pmChristianity is lost in a lot of school,so therefore there are not many options.
Report Post »Chappy123
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:48pmIt is up to the parents to teach their children about sex, polictics and religion. It’s not the schools place!
The schools need to teach kids how to read and write. Nuff said.
Report Post »michele.d
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:54pmAs a NYC public school teacher……I couldn’t agree with you more!
Report Post »SoCalStar
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 10:56pmI live in California. As of this year children will no longer be taught cursive handwriting because “it is no longer needed.” Dumb them down enough and why do they need education at all, just social programming.
Report Post »Git-R-Done
Posted on October 27, 2011 at 12:32amI second that comment. Why even have kids if you aren’t going to be responsible for their moral compass?
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:37pmI don’t know about the sex ed curriculum, but I can certainly tell you that nyc infringes on ALL OUR RIGHTS. What a sick, sorry place it is.
Report Post »Seeds
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:37pmyour statement is wrong and incomplete
Report Post »RenaVA
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:27pmDemocrats have kicked out God from our schools and now are attempting to kick God out of our communities. But Democrats welcome pornography all in the name of Education. B.S. They don’t believe in traditional marriage and believe in the destruction of the family unit as we once knew it.
I think that people, especially the parents of children who are affected by this filth ridden program ought to get off their butts and march to the school board office and demand that this program be stopped immediately.
Also demand that the that type of education be left to the instruction by the parents to the child. We need to demand for our parental rights. Go to http://www.parentalrights.org. This organization is working tirelessly in the fight for the right of parents to be parents to their children.
Report Post »SoCalStar
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 11:04pmIn California, the Democrat controlled legislature passed a law that our RINO governator Schwarzenegger signed, that gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual information must be taught in schools. We removed our granddaughter from kindergarten when she came home from school with a coloring page showing different kinds of families and there were the 2 daddies with their child. My neighbor who is an elementary school teacher defended it saying that we have those kinds of families in the district (we live in a small rural community) and that children must be taught ‘tolerance’ for all kinds of families. If the 2 daddies had come to school I don’t think the children would have noticed or cared whether it was daddy and uncle or friend or whoever. It is the administration and state that are forcing the little ones to think of such things.
Report Post »sooner12
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:26pmMaybe the east coast could break off and sink into the Atlantic.
Maybe the west coast could break off and sink into the Pacific.
Would life be great then with practically all Liberals gone?
Vote to get rid of the DOE.
Report Post »obama-mecca-me-sick
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:54pmLot of conservatives on the East Coast- please don’t drown us!
Report Post »SoCalStar
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 11:07pmLots of conservatives on the west coast, especially San Diego, conservative Orange Co, CA and INLAND.
Report Post »phillipwgirard
Posted on October 25, 2011 at 12:23amme neither
Report Post »Jhn'1
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:16pmAny program teaching sexual techniques, skills, or other “how to” to minors under the age of consent in that state should result in prosecution of the teacher teaching it.
Report Post »After a few union teachers go to jail, the insistence by the principal that this crap be taught will be ignored or result in wildcat strikes until that principal is fired.
RenaVA
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:22pmAbsolutely. They basically have legalized pornography when showing such filth to those students. If the school district where I lived were to do that I would not let me children see such a film. This is making me ill.
Report Post »HEARDENOUGHCRAP
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:48pm40 years ago, sex-ed was put forth as an effort to lower the instance of teen-age pregnancy, and stds. Since the application of “Sex Education” (indoctrination) instances of teen-age pregnancy, and stds have risin dramatically. After learning of FF Piven and her ilk, I believe it was planned to go just the way it has. Too bad, more of us didn’t see it sooner.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:11pmI just skimmed ‘go ask alice’ it is geared toward college age people. Me thinks there might be some concern there.
Report Post »Xxoax
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:09pmHERE is the Best Argument to gay is not Genetic it is that they Cannot REPORDUCE, 2 women or 2 Men Cannot Make a Child, So how is it past in the genitic Code? Yes a Tiny Bit Of the Gay people Pop out Kids with there DNA, it would be a losing battle and if it was genetic it would of DIED out years AGO, I am Sorry Gay people you are a example of a Virus Bug Disruption in the Code that infects the host. You ARE something that can be Cured. God has a plan for Everyone~
Report Post »Mtremblay
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:07pmCheck this out http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/schools_in_condom_boss_hunt_VFmST8fcrSwVgFMs6e4fRL#.TqYIxsMYu0o.facebook
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:14pmOH! ME! ME! I can keep them stocked from here in southwest Ohio!
Report Post »Mtremblay
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 8:50pmOkay, I dont have children but to think critical, where is the data to back up this idea that teaching graphic sex ed prevents pregnancy, prevents STD’s and that these kids are emotionally ready to handle topics like mutual masturbation? If they teach it this way-please prove to me it is effective…
Report Post »Mtremblay
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 8:58pmIt just seems like Snookie has invaded everything
Report Post »Marci
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 9:30pmExactly mtremblay—if you teach them about mutual masturbation, putting them in that so-called uncompromised situation (no disease, no pregnancy), hormones, curiosity and poor impulse control gives way to the next move. You can’t save them all, but a simple “my life was hell at 17 in the 60′s” from my mother kept me a virgin for a long time. I was terrified of becoming pregnant! This is just not appropriate for schools. The old general “how it works” stuff is enough if at all. The rest comes from the parents. For the government to boldly make the assumption that it is not enough is a problem for me. Of those same kids that do go through with the sex anyway, the above hinderances give way to “let’s try it without the condom”. And I know Planned Parenthood is perfectly happy to take MORE taxpayer money for abortion on demand in the future, but this isn’t the way we should be raising the next generation. We get out of them what we teach them. Can you all see the future? It looks like Occupy Wall Street every day forever.
Report Post »paulusmaximus
Posted on October 25, 2011 at 10:01amIt won’t I was a “progressive” school in the 60′s were they taught sex ed with graphic explanations, (granted diagrams were drawn on a chalk board) but all it taught a class of “5th” graders is what go were if they didn’t already know!
Report Post »Still Looking
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 8:37pmHIgh school?! In Sioux Falls, SD, in 2005, we fought a middle school curriculum that was sending fifth graders to Go Ask Alice. In testimony before the Senate Health and Human Services committee, a mother read a front page story from the site about safety when “working” with sheep. This site and the sex ed curricula that send children to this site are horrendous. All parents need to review all the sex ed and abstinence curricula and web sites used in each before their kids enter the classroom. I used to promote abstinence education; not all the curricula are good.
Report Post »paperpushermj
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 8:34pmJudging by the look on that Kids face he will remain Celibate until the day he Dies. The law of unintended Consequences will have these educators create a whole generation of Americans who are Sexually Dysfunctional.
Report Post »ilovepotatoes
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 8:33pmI remember watching “the video” (one for girls, one for boys) in fifth grade. I can’t see why this is too young to teach kids about sex
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 8:40pmhow old are you
how old are you ?
do you really think the video you say as a child is the same videos they are showing now ?
do people really have to continually remind you that things are different now ?????
im guessing you didnt see videos of ******** and an.al sex in your school videos
and, yet, i doubt you still see the difference even now
Report Post »phillipwgirard
Posted on October 25, 2011 at 12:31amdo us a favor! stick with the potatoes! lol
Report Post »hempstead1944
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 8:11pmNew Yorkers embrace this garbage as passionately as the rest of us detest it…..
Report Post »abbygirl1994
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 7:57pmDoes Graphic NYC Sex Ed Curriculum Program Infringe on Parental Rights?
Report Post »Does a bear crap in the woods!! Please people.. do what you can to take your children out of school.. this is Satan at work.. if you don’t want your children destroyed, then please remove them from public school and teach them at home..
PASSIONFORCHRIST
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 8:22pmAmen! Amen! & Amen SISTER! WE AS PARENTS NEED TO COME TOGETHER LOCALLY AND ACROSS OUR NATION AND TAKE OUR SCHOOLS BACK! IF THEY WON’T GIVE US OUR SCHOOLS BACK, WE TAKE OUR CHILDREN OUT! NO TAX DOLLARS IF YOUR CHILD ISN’T THERE! AND IF THEY THINK THEY’LL GET ANY MONEY FROM ILLEGALS, THEY ARE VERY MISTAKEN, WHO DO THEY THINK SUPPORTS THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 7:48pmIf parents arent teaching their kids at home, this is what you will get. Condom on a nanner and half a peach to represent a ******…seems logical to any idiot….******** running wild!!! You brought it on yourself parents. You needed to bitch slap someone years ago….just saying’
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 7:44pmSexuality develops in children at different ages… where I lowest that I have heard of is 3 years old… but where 8 years old is not abnormal… and the degree of sexuality varies widely. This is why it is a parental matter to deal with… yet, most parents avoid the responsibility!
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 7:49pmAnd now they are paying the price.
Report Post »