Vancouver resident Julia Dawn Seaver encourages Clark County residents to share their thoughts with state lawmakers on sex ed legislation
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com.
“The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” So ruled the Supreme Court in 1925. Someone should tell Washington state legislators who are doing double duty to strip parents of those rights.
Local school boards, who are elected by parents and citizens in the community, currently have the ability to decide on whether or not to offer sex ed and which topics to cover, but that’s about to go away unless enough people speak up. Last year SB 5395, which would mandate Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE) beginning in kindergarten in every public school, was stopped after citizens filled five hearing rooms to speak out against it. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) conducted a survey last summer and despite the majority of respondents being in the liberal Puget Sound area and the help of paid ads by Planned Parenthood, 58 percent of respondents said they did not want CSE in schools.
Not willing to let a little thing like the will of the people deter them, the bill was resurrected this year. In fact, another was added in the house, HB 2184. There are two others not currently active, just in case. SB 5395 has been passed in the Senate and is back with the House Education Committee. HB 2184 was heard in the Education Committee last week and has yet to be voted on.
Most parents want good basic sex ed for their children. They do not want SeXXX Ed, which is all OSPI and legislators are willing to consider. Look at The 3 Rs curriculum provided to the committee. In kindergarten, children are told about body parts including “a very sensitive little area at the top called the clitoris.” Teachers are told they can tell them that “the vagina can adjust to the size of a penis” and that they can explain “boners.” Yes, really. Bathing together and mutual masturbation are suggested as safe activities for avoiding STDs to 7th graders.
The legislators who brought these bills talk about children needing information to keep themselves safe. Yet, the most popular CSE curriculum, FLASH, gives students absolutely no stats on the failure rates or risks of any of the birth control methods discussed. Nor does it spell out the risks associated with oral or anal sex despite the repeated references to them throughout the curriculum.
There are also two bills seeking to put health centers in each school district, a move to make it easier for children (whom legislators already deemed mature enough at 13 to make their own medical decisions) to go around their parents for help, SB 6279 and HB 2288.
In California, where CSE is already mandated and Planned Parenthood clinics are being put on campuses, Sen. Scott Wilk recently told parents assembled in a hearing room, “If you’re not sure what is going on in this building, we are having our own version of Animal Farm. Policymakers in this room want to raise your children. You need to stay engaged or you will lose control of the ability to raise your own children.”
You should believe him.
Contact your legislators on the Hotline at (800) 562-6000 or visit http://leg.wa.gov/
More information on Facebook:
SW Washington Parents’ Rights in Education
Informed Parents of Washington
Julia Dawn Seaver
Vancouver
