Posted on 09/04/2015 5:33:04 AM PDT by wagglebee
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, September 3, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- Despite an explicit government promise ensuring that parents can opt their kids out of the controversial sex-ed program beginning in schools next week, the province’s second largest school board has declared that parents will not be able to opt their kids out of portions of the course dealing with homosexuality and gender identity.
In a letter submitted to all mainstream media outlets yesterday, Peel Director of Education Tony Pontes was unambiguous that a request from parents to have their children opt-out would not be accommodated.
“Where the work in the classroom is about inclusion—whatever form that inclusion may take—any of the protected grounds in the Human Rights Code—we will not provide religious or any other accommodation,” he stated.
Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition called the move a “shocking attempt by the state to annex parental authority.”
“Contrary to what this director says, there is no such thing as a human right to force your personal beliefs about sexual morality onto other people's children,” he told LifeSiteNews.
Pontes justified the board’s position by insisting that it is trying to end what he called “discrimination.”
“We cannot—we will not—by action or inaction endorse discrimination. What does this mean? Well, if we are talking about different kinds of families—a discussion that builds a climate of inclusion and safety—we will not allow religious accommodation to be used as a reason for a student to miss that lesson,” he stated in the letter.
But Fonseca said the statement amounted to Pontes “trying to bulldoze the public into believing” that teachers and education bureaucrats can take away a “parental rights as primary educators of children” in the name of “anti-discrimination.”
“But in doing so,” Fonseca continued, “the Board is discriminating aggressively against all parents including Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, and traditionally-principled families in general.”
“When you look at the situation objectively, Pontes is really talking about the State acting as a foreign occupier, coming into the most intimate part of your family life - the religious and moral values you pass onto your children - and declaring that it has the power to override those values for 8 hours per day, 5 days a week. Deciding what moral beliefs children are raised with regarding human sexuality is the sole prerogative of parents,” he said.
Calling the refusal of religious accommodation to stop discrimination a “core value,” Pontes said that he “would no more say yes to someone wanting a child excluded because of a discussion about LGBTQ than I would a discussion about race or gender. All human rights are rights, and all are equal.”
Pontes recognized that not allowing parents to opt their kids out of the controversial program is a move that will not be welcomed by many parents, stating: “Let’s be clear: Some in our community may not like this.” But he added that such parents “may choose to switch school systems … if so, that is a price we must be willing to pay.”
Last February when Education Minister Liz Sandals unveiled the updated sex-curriculum to much uproar from concerned parents, she attempted to assuage them by assuring them that they had the right to opt out their kids.
“It’s actually in the Education Act that a parent has the right to withdraw their child from content they don’t want their child to receive,” Sandals said in an interview with the National Post.
Parents in the Peel board may now have good grounds to bring a formal complaint against the board for ignoring the Ontario Education Act and a promise made by Sandals.
Tory MP Monte McNaughton, who is leading the Progressive Conservative charge against the sex-ed plan, sent a letter to Sandals yesterday, asking her to stand by her promise and with parents against the Peel Board.
“I am writing to you today to ask that you immediately clarify the specific process for parents to opt-out their children from the new sex-education curriculum, as parents across Ontario have relied upon your word on this matter,” he wrote.
McNaughton told LifeSiteNews that he was “taken aback” by the Peel Board’s position, and that it “contradicts” what the Liberal government has been assuring parents. Silence thus far from the education minister “just speaks to the fact that parents cannot trust the Liberal government,” he added.
He called the Peel Board’s decision “disturbing” saying that “parents know what’s best for their kids, not bureaucrats, not politicians, and not government.”
The Peel Board’s letter came out on the same day as thousands of concerned parents demonstrated in front of 103 of the 107 MPP constituency offices across Ontario, calling for the curriculum to be shelved.
Parents are concerned that the curriculum will sexualize their children and destroy their natural innocence by teaching explicit sexual content from the earliest of ages in a framework that critics say is based on ideology, not on genuine science. The curriculum will teach young children about genitalia, explicit details about reproduction, masturbation, and homosexual practices. They will also learn to accept households of two moms and two dads as normal and natural. They also note that the curriculum never speaks about sexuality in reference to love and responsibility, and never suggests saving sex until marriage.
The news comes on the heels of Quebec declaring earlier this week that parents will not be able to opt out children from its new pilot program for sex-ed that critics say promotes the early sexualization of children and indoctrinates children into accepting homosexuality. Life and family leaders say that pushing ideologically based sex-ed on young children will only further breakdown the natural family unit, the cell of society, and lead to moral chaos and social upheaval.
That's what leftist totalitarians do.
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Not just indoctrination... FORCED indoctrination.
When you ask the government to supply everything you want, you give them the power to take anything you have. That includes your children. Hope they’re worth all the free stuff.
One day the state will take it down to the micro level, and when a couple want to hire a sitter for the evening, they’ll have to take the one sent by the govt. If the sitter is a flaming perv in a nambla shirt and a rubber suit...that’s just diversity, and only a bigot would object. Take their kids away to foster care while they attend reindoctrination camp; seize their assets too.
Or people could simply start resisting now. Heh.
The urban left would happily make that trade.
"Every Girl Belongs to Us"
Except the right to decide how to raise and instruct your child. That takes a village idiot.
(brainwashing...from clockwork orange)
Character is formed by family, community, vocation, and faith. State intervention may be necessary when those are lacking. When those are present and working the state can only distort and harm character.
It is not enough to have the Peel Board reverse their decision. Have them removed. Do not send your children to the school until this is done. The problem is not with the policy but with those in authority who would enforce such a policy.
My kid wouldn’t be opting out. He would simply miss every class.
(Obama's former "Safe School Czar" Kevin Jennings)
From the Washington Times...
EDITORIAL: At the president's pleasure
'Safe school czar' encouraged child sex with an older man
September 28, 2009
A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an "older man." At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama's "safe school czar". It's getting hard to keep track of all of this president's problematic appointments. Clearly, the process for vetting White House employees has broken down.
In this one case in which Mr. Jennings had a real chance to protect a young boy from a sexual predator, he not only failed to do what the law required but actually encouraged the relationship.
According to Mr. Jennings' own description in a new audiotape discovered by Fox News, the 15-year-old boy met the "older man" in a "bus station bathroom" and was taken to the older man's home that night. When some details about the case became public, Mr. Jennings threatened to sue another teacher who called his failure to report the statutory rape "unethical." Mr. Jennings' defenders asserted that there was no evidence that he was aware the student had sex with the older man.
However, the new audiotape contradicts this claim. In 2000, Mr. Jennings gave a talk to the Iowa chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, an advocacy group that promotes homosexuality in schools. On the tape, Mr. Jennings recollected that he told the student to make sure "to use a condom" when he was with the older man. That he actively encouraged the relationship is reinforced by Mr. Jennings' own description in his 1994 book, "One Teacher in 10." In that account, the teacher boasts how he allayed the student's concerns about the relationship to such a degree that the 15-year-old "left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated."
Mr. Jennings' denials about these events reveal a lack of remorse. He has not admitted that he made mistakes in this case, and he now refuses to answer any questions about the scandal. Don't forget, this is a presidential appointee we're talking about. Mr. Obama should make clear what his standards are for public servants serving at the pleasure of the president. Encouraging and covering up man-boy sexual activity are serious offenses. The White House should force Mr. Jennings to come clean.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/28/at-the-presidents-pleasure/
The kids must be indoctrinated.
The pathetic irony in cases like this is that a massive influx of Muslim immigrants is probably the most effective way to bring this sh!t to an end.
Well, no. Parental authority was voluntarily surrendered the moment you accepted the idea that government should run your schools.
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As if we needed another reason at this point.
But they're getting worse and worse.
Homoleftists. With ideas so good they’re mandatory. And they try telling us they don’t “recruit.” Coming to a preschool near you.
If you hand your children over to caesar, don’t be surprised if thry come back to you as romans.
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