Reading teachers balk at condom lesson for middle-schoolers

Posted at the Reading Eagle in Reading, PA.

Safe-sex advocates preach that there are ways to make sex with condoms fun, but some Reading middle school teachers are uneasy about discussing the topic in class.

Teachers union President Daniel Grim is questioning whether a planned teen-pregnancy program in the health curriculum is appropriate for students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

Grim told the school board that some teachers feel the material is too graphic and they are uncomfortable teaching it.

"I recommend you take a look at this," Grim said at a board meeting Wednesday. "It's not appropriate for middle school."

Grim noted part of the program that deals with how to make condoms "fun and pleasurable." Suggested lessons include how to work a condom into foreplay and tips on making sex with condoms more physically pleasing.

The program is scheduled to begin in Reading's four middle schools this school year.

This is discusting. Teaching middle school children that sex with condoms can be fun and pleasurable? Is anyone teaching them that it is wrong? Is anyone teaching them exactly what the risks are regardless of whether they use a condom or not? It's the weirdos with a radical agenda that are driving the bus right now. Don't let them drive it in your neighborhood, even if your children are not attending these schools. These are children that we're talking about.

Police: Illinois Teacher Claims to Have Molested 75 Boys

Posted at FOXNews.com

An Illinois middle school teacher charged with 10 counts of illegal possession of child pornography has allegedly admitted to molesting dozens of boys.

Kenneth Lee Johnson told police he sexually abused 75 boys over the past 35 years, but those claims have not been substantiated, according to MyFOXChicago.com.

Parents, keep the line of communication wide open with your children whether they go to public school or not. I have a haunting feeling that this guy is probably estimating fairly accurately the number of children that he has harmed, and that most molesters who are caught and charged are responsible for many many more incidents than they are eventually charged with.

Also, if you pay any attention to the news, you'll see a consistent pattern of reducing charges before court, and plea agreements or deals, all resulting in convictions of lesser charges than what the perp was originally alleged to have done.

Based on that information, we can't very well look at a registered sex offender's criminal record and hope to have a good idea of what he or she has done. Nor can we look at someone without a criminal history and assume that they are not monsters. That is why we must beware and choose carefully whom we turn our children over to day after day.

Illinois Moment of Silence in Schools Ruled Unconstitutional

Posted at FOXNews.com

CHICAGO — A federal judge has ruled that a state law requiring a moment of silence in public schools across Illinois is unconstitutional, saying it crosses the line separating church and state.



"The statute is a subtle effort to force students at impressionable ages to contemplate religion," U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman said in his ruling Wednesday.

It has come to the point where I would say that only those parents who don't want their child contemplating religion should continue to send their children to the government schools. I agree that I wouldn't necessarily want my child to be taught anything about God at a government school since I know that I wouldn't trust them to do so accurately, but to not even allow a moment of silence?

Prayer in government schools used to be non denominational and basically Christian, in agreement with the overwhelming majority of American citizen's faith and values. In 1782, the United States Congress passed the following resolution: "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools."

The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment requires public school officials to be neutral in their treatment of religion, showing neither favoritism toward nor hostility against religious expression such as prayer. Good News Club v. Milford Cent. Sch., 533 U.S. 98 (2001); Everson v. Board of Educ., 330 U.S. 1 (1947).

However, in their effort to be neutral, they have swung so far to the left that they seem to think that allowing for any religious contemplation by the students is somehow crossing that line. The only people who should be comfortable with going this far to remove all consideration for any contemplation of the existance of God from our school systems are the atheists and indifferent agnostics. If that's what they want, let them have the school system. Then the government will be forced to change it or abandon it all together, allowing our money that continually goes to pay for these schools to be better spent.

By sending our children to government schools and not combating the indifference on a daily basis at home, we have been raising godless generations since the 1960s. We will reap what we sow.

Wisconsin High School Features In-Depth Homosexual Indoctrination Regimen

Posted at LifeSiteNews.com.

In an effort to combat "homophobia," a Wisconsin public school teacher implemented a 38-day regimen explicitly designed to change the minds of students who did not view homosexuality as equal to heterosexuality.

11-th grade English teacher Sarah Arnold says she was inspired to create the curriculum, entitled "Exposing Hidden Homophobia," when she heard an "anti-gay undertone" in students' conversations, which included making fun of "anything that defied gender stereotype," according to an article printed in the pro-homosexual publication by the Southern Poverty Law Center "Teaching Tolerance."

"Some people would say we don't have a wide demographic variety here," Arnold said of the mostly white Elkhorn Area High School. "It's more accurate to say that we have demographics that aren't acknowledged."

[snip]

The article claims that, thanks to the program, students began to adopt a more favorable view of homosexuality, as evidenced by portfolio essays and an increased membership in the school's Gay-Straight Alliance.

Colleen Rafter, principal of Raritan High School in Hazlet, N.J., said she convinced the English department in her school to adopt a homosexuality program similar to Arnold's, according to the article.

"We really want to make a change in how people think and act," Rafter said. "I will try to be more brave on these issues myself."

There you have it. There is an agenda to "change in how people think" with regards to homosexuality. For those of you who think that your public school is "pretty good" and that your kids are a "positive influence" on the lost who also attend, don't kid yourselves. There is an agressive push to indoctrinate the children with the radical social agendas. Unless your child is just as powerful and agressive as the teachers and administrators, you are throwing them to the wolves. I beg of you to take care of your children. You are responsible for what they learn.

Like a Virgin: The Press Take On Teenage Sex

Posted at The Wall Street Journal.

The chain reaction was something out of central casting. A medical journal starts it off by announcing a study comparing teens who take a pledge of virginity until marriage with those who don't. Lo and behold, when they crunch the numbers, they find not much difference between pledgers and nonpledgers: most do not make it to the marriage bed as virgins.

Like a pack of randy 15-year-old boys, the press dives right in.

"Virginity Pledges Don't Stop Teen Sex," screams CBS News. "Virginity pledges don't mean much," adds CNN. "Study questions virginity pledges," says the Chicago Tribune. "Premarital Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds," heralds the Washington Post. "Virginity Pledges Fail to Trump Teen Lust in Look at Older Data," reports Bloomberg. And on it goes.

In other words, teens will be teens, and moms or dads who believe that concepts such as restraint or morality have any application today are living in a dream world. Typical was the lead for the CBS News story: "Teenagers who take virginity pledges are no less sexually active than other teens, according to a new study."

Here's the rub: It just isn't true.

In fact, the only way the study's author, Janet Elise Rosenbaum of Johns Hopkins University, could reach such results was by comparing teens who take a virginity pledge with a very small subset of other teens: those who are just as religious and conservative as the pledge-takers. The study is called "Patient Teenagers? A Comparison of the Sexual Behavior of Virginity Pledgers and Matched Nonpledgers," and it was published in the Jan. 1 edition of Pediatrics.

So, in other words, in order to come to the desired pre-formed conclusion, the data had to be cherry picked. It seems to me that a more accurate statement would be that teens with religious and conservative values are less likely to engage in teenage sex regardless of whether or not they take a formal virginity pledge.

It's quite clear from the recent barrage of articles based on the report referenced in the article that the goal was to diminish the value of virgiity pledges. However, the only way that the author was able to do so, was to first assume that only religious or conservative teens would actually make a virginity pledge.

What Dr. Healy was getting at is that the pledge itself is not what distinguishes these kids from most other teenagers. The real difference is their more conservative and religious home and social environment. As she notes, when you compare both groups in this study with teens at large, the behavioral differences are striking. Here are just a few:

- These teens generally have less risky sex, i.e., fewer sexual partners.

- These teens are less likely to have a teenage pregnancy, or to have friends who use drugs.

- These teens have less premarital vaginal sex.

- When these teens lose their virginity they tend to do so at age 21 -- compared to 17 for the typical American teen.

- And very much overlooked, one out of four of these teens do in fact keep the pledge to remain chaste -- amid much cheap ridicule and just about zero support outside their homes or churches.

Let's put this another way. The real headline from this study is this: "Religious Teens Differ Little in Sexual Behavior Whether or Not They Take a Pledge."

They're Having Babies. Are We Helping?

This story was posted at the Washington Post on Sunday and brings up a very good point. In an effort to try and help teenagers who get pregnant, are we actually removing many of the deterrents? What we are creating is a generation of children that are raised by disinterested parties in daycare centers and government schools. These children are taught the morality of those who bear them and raise them.

"There is zero shame," agrees school nurse Runton. One girl walked into a colleague's class last month, announced that she was pregnant and began showing her sonogram around. Another 16-year-old proudly proclaimed that she was "going on maternity leave." The teacher tried to explain that maternity leave is a job benefit that doesn't apply to high school students.
[snip]
School social worker David Wynne states the obvious: "Whatever we're doing, it's not working." It's hard to say whether other school districts do any better than Alexandria at discouraging teen pregnancy. According to Brown, school sex-ed programs nationwide are a patchwork that includes everything from required HIV/AIDS education to using students as peer counselors to abstinence-only programs. No one really knows what's working where. But at T.C., I know that almost every adult involved in helping our girls seems to be at a loss, especially in the face of the rising birth rate among Hispanics.

Cynthia Quinteros, however, has a theory. "I feel that the community is afraid to talk about all the girls who are getting pregnant," she says. "Once you get pregnant, they do everything for you, but they ought to be doing all they can do to show girls how difficult their lives will be if they have a baby.

The truth is, it's still hard to do it right. It's very very easy to do it wrong. There are many mistakes that can be made in child rearing that cannot be undone, and one of the largest is allowing your child to be raise by someone who doesn't truly live him (or her).

Middle Schoolers Suspended for Sex Activities in Class

Posted at FOXNews.com

MIRAMAR, Fla. — Three students at a Broward County middle school have been suspended for what school officials say was inappropriate sexual activity in a classroom.

The students from Glades Middle School in Miramar were suspended this week and face expulsion. School officials and police say the students are about 13 years old and more may be involved.

Two teachers have been reassigned while the district investigates. The activity was allegedly going on in their classrooms.

Authorities have not described the inappropriate conduct.

From the story, it sounds like this activity may have taken place while a teacher was either in the room, or that it took place while the teacher was not in the room but should have been. I'm only speculating since the story states that "two teachers have been reassigned while the district investigates."

What in the world is going on in the hearts and minds of our school children? What about those who are charged with teaching them? If you want to know, just look at what's on the TV, video games, books they read, posters and ads they see, what do their friends talk about, etc.?

What do you mean you don't know?

9-year-old student charged in pencil stabbing

Posted at FayObserver.com

A 9-year-old elementary school student has been charged with seriously injuring a classmate by stabbing her in the back with a pencil on Wednesday, lawmen said.

Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies charged the boy after he stabbed the 10-year-old girl at Cliffdale Road Elementary School, a news release said.

Investigators say the boy stabbed the girl with a pencil, causing a puncture wound on the upper portion of her back.

The boy stabbed the girl after an argument over a pencil box, authorities said.

According to the release, the boy found his missing pencil box in the girl’s possession.

The girl did not require emergency medical assistance and returned to school Thursday, the release said.

Detectives could charge the boy with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury pending the outcome of the investigation, the release said.

He is in the custody of his parents at this time. School officials will handle disciplinary action against him.

Public school teachers wild on social networks

Posted on World Net Daily:Public school teachers wild on social networks

As part of a disturbing new trend, America's public-school teachers are increasingly posting questionable and even sexually explicit information on video-sharing websites and social networks frequented by youth.

According to several nationwide reports, students often search for their teachers on MySpace and Facebook, and some find more information about their instructors than they ever expected.

The National Education Association listed a number of cases, while news outlets have been consistently reporting similar incidents, including the following:

Virginia – Monacan High School art teacher Stephen Murmer posted pictures of what he called "butt art" on YouTube in January 2007. He painted his buttocks and genitals and pressed them onto canvas. Many students saw his painting before the school fired him. He then contacted the ACLU and sued the district, saying it violated his First Amendment rights. Murmer reached a $65,000 settlement with the district.

A kindergarten teacher from Prince William County, Va., posted a video of a half-nude man having an orgasm in the shower, the Washington Post reported. Another Prince William County substitute teacher used MySpace to post photos of a woman lifting her dress, showing lingerie and flashing breasts.

One of the biggest things that conviced my wife and me that homeschooling was the right choice for us was what we saw when we became involved in our children's education.

My wife missed our sons when they were sent to school every day. My oldest was in 2nd grade and my next oldest was in Kindergarten. Both are boys, and we also had a 2-year old girl at the time. My wife started volunteering at the school to help the teachers in K and 2nd, and also served as a detention aid and playground monitor. The children's behavior was enought raise serious concerns about what these kids knew, how they knew it, and how they acted it out on the playground. Even more concerning was how the teachers acted when we attended their annual staff Christmas party. It was a "White Elephant" party with plenty of gag gifts that would have made a prostitute blush.

Tolerance fails T-shirt test

Here's a story in the Chicago Tribune about a girl who wanted to do an experiment to test the "tolerance" of those in who pride themselves most on their "tolerance".

She noticed that there were a lot if kids who wore Obama shirts to school in support of Barak Obama for president before the election, so she decided to wear a shirt to school one day that simply said "McCain Girl" and then record the reactions she got from both students and staff.

"People were upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it," Catherine said.

Then it got worse.

"One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed," Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.

But students weren't the only ones surprised that she wore a shirt supporting McCain.

"In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain," Catherine said.

If Catherine was shocked by such passive-aggressive threats from instructors, just wait until she goes to college.

"Later, that teacher found out about the experiment and said she was embarrassed because she knew I was writing down what she said," Catherine said.

One student suggested that she be put up on a cross for her political beliefs.

[snip]

Only a few times did anyone say anything remotely positive about her McCain shirt. One girl pulled her aside in a corner, out of earshot of other students, and whispered, "I really like your shirt."

The next day she wore a shirt that simply said "Obama Girl". The reactions were quite different.

"People liked my shirt. They said things like my brain had come back, and I had put the right shirt on today," Catherine said.

Some students accused her of playing both sides.

"A lot of people liked it. But some people told me I was a flip-flopper," she said. "They said, 'You can't make up your mind. You can't wear a McCain shirt one day and an Obama shirt the next day.' "

But she sure did, and she turned her journal into a report for her history teacher, earning Catherine extra credit. We asked the teacher, Norma Cassin-Pountney, whether it was ironic that Catherine would be subject to such intolerance from pro-Obama supporters in a community that prides itself on its liberal outlook.

I think that anyone who clings to an ideology and then attaches a "good" name to it like "tolerant", "smart", "wise", "kind", "selfless", "progressive", etc.; is then, without much of a leap, able to label those who migh disagree with them as "intolerant", "stupid", "unwise", "unkind", "selfish", "regressive", etc. There are two dangers that I immediately see with this belief. First, it causes us to automatically throw out all of the ideas from the opposing ideology as bad ideas, even if their not, and it also can cause us to demonize those who support those ideologies. Either way, we come off looking "intolerant" and "stupid" when we're faced with our bad behavior.