A high school in Northern California is under fire for vastly overstepping boundaries in its sex education curriculum. A sex education class at Acalanes High School in Lafayette is being taught by employees of Planned Parenthood, and the content of the lessons and the materials being utilized, are highly controversial.
Parents of the students are infuriated that they had not been given advanced notice that the sex-ed class was being taught by Planned Parenthood employees. Parents are further angered by the methods and materials being used in the lessons, which include a checklist that asks students whether they are “ready for sex,” as well as a worksheet that explains how to give and receive consent.
Perhaps the most provoking item is a diagram that uses a “genderbread” person for lessons in gender identity. The “Genderbread Person,” a play on words referencing the popular holiday cookie, asks students to identify themselves as either “agender,” “bigender,” “two spirit,” “third gender,” or “gender queer.”
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Fox News reported December 10:
Included in the materials provided to students were documents and worksheets that included a checklist entitled, “Sex Check! Are You Ready For Sex?” in which the 13 and 14-year-old students are asked questions such as if they have water–based lubricants and condoms and if they could handle a possible infection or pregnancy. Another worksheet reads like a how-to on obtaining consent from a possible sexual partner and offers possible statements like “Do you want to go back to my place?” and “Is it OK if I take my pants off?”
The Pacific Justice Institute, a non-profit legal organization, has begun to work with parents in the district to address these concerns. “[Parents] are very concerned,” Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute told FoxNews.com. “Planned Parenthood is not exactly the best when it comes to putting young people first.”
Planned Parenthood has been exposed on numerous occasions for its highly inappropriate sexual education content. Just last year, the New York Times and the Washington Post both rejected a full-page advertisement from the pro-life group, the American Life League (ALL), for being “too graphic” and “shocking” for adult readers. That ad was submitted by ALL to raise public awareness about just how inappropriate the Planned Parenthood sex education curriculum was, as the ad featured images from actual Planned Parenthood sex-ed materials for children as young as 10 years of age. As observed by ALL, if the images are too graphic for adult readers, why are they permissible for children?
“The question we must ask is: Why is the Obama administration funneling $350 million to push this filth into classrooms while at the same time telling us we don’t have money for White House tours, TSA agents, or border security?” asked Judie Brown, president and cofounder of ALL. “Starting in kindergarten, funded with our tax dollars, PP uses graphic cartoons to saturate children with sexual imagery that encourages them to focus on sexuality, engage in sex, and accept dangerous aberrant sexual acts as perfectly normal. Parents’ tax dollars are being used to turn their own children into Planned Parenthood’s future sex customers.”
Parents at Acalanes High School felt compelled to raise issues when their children explained that they were feeling pressured to have sex through the lessons. One particular student complained that an instructor threw a model of female reproductive organs at another student.
“Our daughter took this course two years ago, after being provided the opportunity to opt out of the class,” John Lyons, whose two children attend AHS, told FoxNews.com. “The opt-out form provided a handful of bullet points about what the course would cover. After completing the course, it was apparent that some of what was ‘taught’ went beyond what was represented on the opt-out form. This is disappointing to us, because we are actually strong supporters of teen sex education in a peer environment to complement our home-based discussions.”
Lyon’s further opined that the method by which some of the information was delivered seemed to promote Planned Parenthood’s agenda of “social justice” through sex education.
Parents have launched a petition asking the high school to give a preview of the class to them before their kids take the course.
In the meantime, the Pacific Justice Institute, addressed a letter to Northern California’s Acalanes Union High School District indicating that it may be breaking the law, referencing a federal statute that states schools must receive parental consent prior to student participation in surveys or evaluations. California’s education code has the same requirement.
“We have not seen any documentation to indicate that distribution of the surveys complied with federal law or the California Education Code as to parental notification,” the letter reads. “Notably, the law does not merely require notice; it requires specific parental permission for this type of survey to be administered.”
Similar complaints regarding sex education curricula have been seen in California’s Fremont Unified School District, where parents raised issue with a sex education textbook that featured inappropriate content.
According to parents, the textbook, which was intended for 14-year-old ninth graders, made a number of inappropriate references to masturbation, sex toys, and bondage.
“Administration and staff believes the textbook will be an asset to our health curriculum in that it provides the current, accurate, factual and relevant information our students need to make responsible decisions about their health,” Superintendent Jim Morris said. Parents in the district circulated a petition, which garnered over 1,500 signatures, to have the book removed. The district has agreed to use a previously used health textbook, at least for now, until the book’s publisher, McGraw-Hill, makes age-appropriate revisions.
