Posted on 05/13/2005 8:40:19 AM PDT by Phantom Lord
Abstinence speaker pushed religion in school, dad charges
An irate father is demanding that Bozeman High School present students with a rebuttal to what he called "extremely biased religious dogma" delivered by an assembly speaker who warned teens against the dangers of drugs, drinking and premarital sex.
Tom Wells, a Bozeman attorney and father of a ninth-grader, told the School Board on Monday night that he was appalled by the "thinly veiled ministry" and "misinformation" presented the week before by speaker Tina Marie Holewinski.
Holewinski, 27, of Hollywood, Calif., a full-time speaker with an organization called True Lies, defended her talk Tuesday as full of "hard-core facts" that could save teenagers' lives.
She denied that she interjected any of her religious beliefs in the talk, and added she'd been flooded with e-mail messages from grateful teens.
Principal Godfrey Saunders said Holewinski had presented the messages school officials are most concerned about each spring, with prom and graduation approaching -- Don't drink, drink and drive, don't use drugs.
But, Saunders said, she had gone beyond what they were expecting to present her own views about abstinence.
Saunders said he had spoken to students through the school intercom the next morning to say that what Holewinski discussed about condoms and birth control pills isn't what is taught in the school's sex-ed curriculum, though it also emphasizes abstinence.
"She went off-message," Superintendent Mike Redburn said. "We share (Wells') concerns."
Wells demanded the school give equal time to rebut the "misinformation" his son heard: that condoms lead to cancer, that birth control pills are only 20 percent effective, that sexually transmitted diseases are spread by skin contact alone, that third-trimester fetuses can be aborted, that video games lead to homicide, that human papilloma virus can be transferred through condoms and that teens can achieve "second virginity" through abstinence.
Holewinski responded that she spoke mainly against against drugs, drinking and driving, and debunked "the media's" glamorization of sex, alcohol, drugs and violence.
She maintained it's true that there are cancer-causing agents in latex condoms; that 80 percent of teenage girls who seek abortions are already on birth-control pills; and that human papilloma virus is small enough to pass through condoms. She said she does promote the idea of second virginity.
The school paid Holewinski paid $1,500 for her talk and expenses.
Pat Strauss, assistant principal, said much of Holewinski's talk did cover what they'd asked for, but then all of a sudden she'd throw in zingers, like condoms have 15 different carcinogens, or that birth control pills cause cervical cancer or sterility.
The reaction from the 1,800 students was split 50/50, he said. Some teachers said the talk prompted some lively discussions.
"We tried to do something good for our kids -- be safe, get everybody through graduation," Strauss said. "That's what's most disappointing."
A cursory review of Internet sites on just one of Holewinski's disputed topics turned up numerous sites asserting condoms are linked to cancer; however, the pro-condom Planned Parenthood site contends that abstinence-only supporters have put out a number of myths about condoms over the years.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Web site doesn't discuss any condom-cancer link. It does say, "a condom could save your life" by greatly reducing the chances of getting sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS. It adds, "sex with condoms isn't totally 'safe sex,' but it is 'less risky' sex."
This is homely?
Your pictures please.
I was looking at the link in post 36. Your picture is a Tripod logo.
Homely is in the eye of the beholder, of course.
They are going to smoke and drink anyway
Well, our True Lies speaker, Tina Holewinski is a spokesperson for alcohol and tobacco products so maybe we should ask her about it.
Look around you when you're out and about. There are people of all ages walking around who are more than capable of refraining from sex.
It just seems you aren't.
Ever heard of self-restraint?
One of reasons for the moral decline in this country is because too many people give in to their "natural urges" to the detrement of society as a whole.
I give you the AIDS epidemic as a good example.
Can they get Bill Clinton up there to speak for the joys of drugs, drinking, and extramarital sex ?
Right--and I'm sure she adopts the line that drinking and smoking are fine as long as they are done in a responsible manner. It's only when it comes to sex that she wants to act like a Puritan.
Far from homely. The photo is quite large, tho'.. :-)
I get the impression that you are male. As a woman, knowing the potential consequences of HPV infection, I don't find these weasel-words reassuring.
* More than nine in 10 women who are at risk of unintended pregnancy (women who are sexually active, able to become pregnant, and neither pregnant nor trying to become pregnant) are using a contraceptive method. [10]
7. How well do contraceptives work?
* Modern contraceptive methods are highly effectiveso much so that nearly half (47%) of all unintended pregnancies in the United States occur among the small proportion (7%) of women at risk of unintended pregnancy who do not practice contraception. Women using contraceptives experience the following failure rates:
Failure rate: the percentage of women using contraceptives who will become pregnant during their first year of use, by method
Method | % of women who will become pregnant, according to type of use | ||
---|---|---|---|
Perfect use | Typical use | ||
Cervical cap | 18 | 28 | |
Diaphragm | 6 | 16 | |
Implant | 0.05 | 1 | |
Injectable | 0.3 | 3 | |
IUD (Copper T 380A) | 0.6 | 1 | |
Male condom | 3 | 15 | |
No method | 85 | 85 | |
Periodic abstinence (calendar method) | 9 | 25 | |
Pill (combined [estrogen-progestin] oral contraceptive) | 0.1 | 8 | |
Spermicides | 6 | 29 | |
Sponge | 15 | 30 | |
Tubal sterilization | 0.5 | 0.7 | |
Vasectomy | 0.1 | 0.2 | |
Withdrawal | 4 | 27 | |
(For sources, see reference 11.) | http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/sci_data/misc/type_txt/nsfgc88.asp Observation/question. If a woman can get pregnant 8% of the time during the first year of the use of a pill, do they reach 24% after 3 years? |
Every generation acts like rutting elk when they are teenagers. EVERY generation. And, like clockwork, that generation grows up into adulthood, and begins fretting that "teenagers these days are just having too much sex!" I would wager that there has not been a single generation that was not obsessed with the amount of sex that (they feared) their children were having.
It has nothing to do with self-restraint. My parents taught me that sex is natural and good, and that it is best enjoyed with someone with whom you are in a serious relationship. Anything else can lead to more problems than it's worth. And that's advice I followed, and that I will pass on to my kids.
I've known far too many people whose parents pushed a "absolutely no sex!" line on them, and, guess what? Those people were always having way more sex than my friends whose parents were more realistic about the same thing.
Are you looking at the picture from 36, or the one Phantom Lord posted? Is there a way to view whatever the Tripod logo is hiding?
I don't think you're reading the part about STDs right. There is an obvious "can be" in there as in:
that sexually transmitted diseases "can be" spread by skin contact aloneWhich is entirely true.
I attempted to post the 5th one down.
Tax-chick, if you still find her "homely" after viewing the photos on this page, I again (with all due respect) ask you to post photos of yourself to determine your "homeliness".
Allowing this sort of garbage in public schools leads to dangerous ignorance. Remember the Congressman or Senator some years back, who made himself the laughing stock of the whole world, when he claimed (while arguing that abortion shouldn't be legal even in cases of rape), that women can't get pregnant from rape, because if it's not consensual they secrete some substance that prevents pregnancy? He "learned" that from listening to some wacko anti-abortion speaker many years prior, and had believed it ever since.
BTW, the condoms are quite effective at preventing transmission of HPV, and that fact accounts for the CORRELATION between oral contraceptive use and higher rates of HPV infections. Oral contraceptive use reduces the rate of condom use, and thus allows transmission of HPV which wouldn't have occurred with condom use.
Kind of Tori Spelling-ish, but better than the first one I saw.
Pictures of me are on the Fayetteville FReep thread :-).
Abstinence-only supporters are the most self-righteous group of puritans you could ever run across. We ought to take them and the freaks "debating" evolution in Kansas and consign them to an island somewher
No, but I'm going to teach them about the hazards of cigarettes and alcohol and encourage them to use such products as safely as possible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.