SEX IN MIDDLE SCHOOL

                 

            

 Matt and Hannah have been dating for about three months…Things have gotten serious between Matt and Hannah…They touch each other and things have gotten pretty hot.

 Who are Matt and Hannah?  Characters in a love story?  Stars of a film?  Protagonists in a novel?   None of the above.  Matt and Hannah are imaginary twelve-year-old children in at least one of Altona Middle School’s written instructions for helping pre-teens engage in sex. 

Let’s get back to the story.

Matt would like to have sex with Hannah. Who wouldn’t?

 Who wouldn’t?  In other words, all twelve-year-olds want to engage in sex.  It’s normal and expected.  So go ahead and do it.  After all, who wouldn’t?

But let’s get back to the unfolding drama.

There just seems to be a lot of reasons not to have sex.  Matt is worried about infection or pregnancy.  Hannah suggests condoms.

Later in this literature is a series of questions on the “Sex Readiness Check List.”  After checking off the boxes, they are advised.

If you said yes to the last question, then you and your partner(s) are probably in a sound position to have a kind of sex together and more likely to have positive outcomes.  If you said no to the last question, then one or both of you might want to…rethink your choices, and/or…make changes to whatever needs changing to get you both to that yes.

They are being encouraged to work things out (getting to yes) at which time they will both be comfortable “having a kind of sex together.”  Notice the plural “partner(s),” implying it’s okay to have more than one.

 Later the readiness manual asks:

What does consent sound like?

Yes.

I’m so sure.

I’m excited.

Don’t stop.

Whoohoo! Yipeee!

More.

I want to..

That feels good.

 Since the Sex Readiness literature for pre-teen children likes to ask questions, I have a few of my own.

Question: Do you as a parent encourage your twelve-year-old to make changes to whatever needs changing to get to that promised land?  

If you answered no to the above question, (to use the brochure’s phraseology) then why do you allow the school to do it?

Question:  The primary mission of school is to teach academic subjects. Where is it written that teachers at Altona are responsible for instructing our children about sex?

Question: From where does the school derive the mandate to push their values on our children?

The standard answer is that kids are going to do it anyway, so why not help them have safe sex?

Well -  some will do it anyway, some will not.  When the values of the society around them frown on it, they are less likely to do it.  But when the school, the primary socializing institution of their lives, encourages sex among them, they will be more likely.

Schools often tell parents they have the ability to “opt out” of these classes.  But parents aren’t always informed about the specifics of the class.  “Sex education” sounds innocent and clinical, but it’s much more than that.  Because of the controversial subject matter, the better method would be to have parents opt-in.  Schools don’t use opt-in because they know few parents will want their children saying Whoohoo! Yipeee! at the age of twelve.

Question: Why does this handy dandy sex readiness pamphlet for children never suggest they talk it over with their parents?  You know, parents - those folks who sired them, who love them, who raised them, who wiped their tears, who ached for them when schoolyard bullies intimidated, and who have to deal with the consequences of the school’s irresponsible usurpation of their inherent parental rights.  As far as I can tell, there is not a single reference to parents in the sex readiness literature.

Question - The literature tells children that if they checked the boxes, they are “more likely to have positive outcomes.”

 Positive outcomes?  What does that mean?  Better sex? No pregnancies?  No infection? It’s hard to come up with positive outcomes for children, their parents and the society around them.  But here a few negatives.

• 40% of all births in the United States are now out of wedlock

• 75% of African American children are born out of wedlock, along with  29.1 % of non- Hispanic whites.

• Since 1970, 45,789,558 abortions were reported to the CDC.  The actual numbers are probably much higher.

    Here is a negative outcome that hits much, much closer to home. 

                                                                                    May, 10, 2019

“The Longmont Police Department is conducting an independent investigation that involves a group of students from Altona Middle School regarding sexting. We cannot release any additional information while the investigation is ongoing.

…If you have any questions, please contact me directly at 720-XXX-XXX-XXXX.    

Sincerely, 
Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx 
Principal, Altona Middle School

Police were investigating reports that middle school students were buying, selling and trading explicit images of other students.  Is there a direct link between Altona’s sex education classes and the sexting scandal?  It’s hard to know.  But Altona’s policies are part of a broader pattern that corrupts childhood and has no “positive outcomes” whatsoever.

 We should all want to “opt-out” of that.

Author’s note - I sent the above letter to the editor of the local newspaper. He asked for a copy of the literature.  I sent it.  He asked for the name of a parent whose child received the literature.  I sent it.  In the end he stopped communicating and never published it. 

I guess we could say the editor opted-out of his responsibility to parents, to the children, to the school, to the community and to the country.

All of this would have been unheard of fifty years ago; it is commonplace today, and part of the endpoint of The Great Transformation leading to the current Crisis.

Next stop in four days – A ticket to the movies