Posted on 05/26/2003 1:38:29 PM PDT by Coleus
Abortion issue is played out before students
Monday, May 26, 2003 By KATHLEEN CARROLL HERALD NEWS
PATERSON - Students leaving Eastside High School last week were greeted by abortion protesters bearing graphic images of what they said are aborted fetuses.
The group, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., has visited a handful of local high schools in recent months, including those in Clifton, Teaneck, Bergenfield, Maplewood, Hackensack, Paramus and Manchester Regional in Haledon, said Bill Calvin, the group's Northeast coordinator.
"Young people in the high school age group are forming ideas about sexuality and what to do in a crisis pregnancy," Calvin said. "We were only there because the school district doesn't teach students the truth about the most important moral issue they are ever going to deal with. In a sense, we are there in lieu of the schools and the colleges doing their job."
Thursday afternoon, CBR employees and volunteers from local right-to-life organizations stood behind tall placards with anti-abortion slogans across the street from Eastside's main entrance. Meanwhile, a driver circled the school in a large white truck with a large-scale image that the group identified as an aborted fetus. They were joined by about a dozen teenage students from Mary Help of Christians Academy, a North Haledon Catholic school for girls.
"They think it's just getting rid of something, but it's really a human being," said Solangel Diaz, a 15-year-old Mary Help student from Paterson.
Thursday's event came as a surprise to the Paterson Public Schools. Administrators at Eastside High School were not told about CBR's plans, according to Pat Chalmers, district spokeswoman.
"While the district can appreciate groups' or individuals' First Amendment rights, it was disturbing that they chose to come before the close of a school day," she said. "We appreciate their right to participate in an activity; we felt the cooperation level was nonexistent."
"Why would they come in front of a public school, I don't know," said Ruby Cotton, parental liaison for the Eastside school-management team. "Some of the parents probably would be angry for their kids to see stuff like that."
The organization does not contact school districts before arriving outside a targeted school, Calvin said.
"We don't go out of our way to tell the school district, because there are some where they would try to stop us or try to send the kids out of the back door," he said.
The organization, which advertises its message on public property, has tangled with public officials throughout the country.
"We spend more time fighting (for) First Amendment rights than fighting abortion rights," said Gregg Cunningham, executive director of CBR. The nonprofit organization has an annual budget of $1 million to $2 million and eight offices nationwide, he said.
Cunningham, a lawyer and a former Pennsylvania legislator, operates the group outside the right-to-life norm, opting to shock first, dialogue later.
"Most mainline organizations reject the use of shocking pictures," Cunningham said. "They mistakenly believe that to be effective, they have to be liked."
Many newspapers and television stations refuse to run CBR ads because they include graphic images. In response, CBR has created its own media: a fleet of trucks and planes, and the enormous vinyl signs used in the protest outside Eastside. One sign, which was 6 feet tall and 13 feet long, included images of Holocaust victims, murdered black men hanging from trees, aborted fetuses and the word "genocide."
Cunningham said the group purchases the fetus images from abortion clinics, and that doctors certify the images' authenticity. In previous years, whenever someone publicly questioned the authenticity of the photos, CBR lawyers warned that they would sue the speaker for defamation.
In the past two years, no one has questioned the photos' accuracy, Cunningham said.
"I've been disappointed, actually, that in the two years of our truck project, and one year of our planes project, we have not been able to find anybody in the abortion industry to repeat those allegations," he said. "We're locked and loaded. We're ready to file suit. We're waiting for somebody to step into that trap."
Last summer, the group sued municipal officials in California to assert its right to fly small planes carrying banners with anti-abortion messages and photos of blood-covered fetuses over beaches. The organization also flew planes over the New Jersey coastline last year, and will do so again this summer.
CBR also employs drivers to drive trucks past schools and other public places. Their fleet of large white trucks, which recently parked at Rutgers University in New Brunswick for one week, show large-scale images of aborted fetuses and the word "Choice."
CBR has also parked its trucks in front of middle and high schools, timed to coincide with students' arrivals and departures, Cunningham said. Teenagers are a prime target in CBR's drive to sway public sentiment about abortion, and the organization plans to increase its presence around middle and high schools.
"Abortion decisions tend to be heavily influenced by Planned Parenthood, which is able to gain access to the schools much more readily than we," he said. "It's very important that children who are being lied to about abortion are given the opportunity to see the truth."
"We are invited into the schools because we give a balanced point of view. We have no ax to grind," said Maggie Constan, public affairs director for Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey. Some school districts hire educators from Planned Parenthood to run sexual health seminars in schools. Sex education is mandated by New Jersey law for students in grades K-12.
"When we go into schools, we are very careful to offer the abstinence point of view because we really feel that that is the best thing for teenagers," Constan said. "I think (CBR protesters) do themselves a disservice because they turn most kids off and they don't want to think about the issue."
At Eastside, students expressed varied reaction to the posters. Some giggled and hurried by. Others cringed and commented that the posters were unsettling. Others said the protesters had a right to express their opinions. Their names have been withheld, to protect their privacy.
"It's what they feel," said a 17-year-old girl. She shrugged. "It's OK."
"Racism, that's a different thing," said an 18-year-old boy, looking at the "genocide" poster.
"I'm not upset they are here," said a 17-year-old girl who said she had an abortion in October. "It's better to show up, so people will know. I did it because the father said it wasn't his. I knew I would take care of my baby if I had someone to help me."
She said that the posters did not change her mind about her decision to have an abortion.
"They make me not want to have sexual intercourse a day in my life," said a 16-year-old boy. He said his girlfriend had had an abortion without his knowledge.
"I was very upset," he said. "I don't believe in killing babies like that. I didn't take it out on her, though. What could I do? That's her body. I can't tell her what to do with her body. If it was my body, I wouldn't have done it."
His friend, a 14-year-old boy, agreed.
"I wouldn't get an abortion. My mother didn't do it to me. If I'm old enough to have it, I'm old enough to take care of it."
Reach Kathleen Carroll at (973) 569-7135 |or carroll@northjersey.com
And some of the parents are definitely angry about what's going on INSIDE the schools.
MM
Uh oh. You're in for a nasty surprise.
New Jersey Education Association Stands Up for Comprehensive Sexuality Education
The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) has canceled three sexuality education workshops that were scheduled for its annual convention in Atlantic City in November after learning that the leaders of the sessions support abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.
"When we realized their views were contrary to our policy, we felt we had to un-invite them," said Karen Joseph, NJEA spokesperson. "We have an obligation to provide our members with a wide array of information and as many tools as we can. We have replaced the abstinence-only presentations with seminars that we believe will give our members more tools that they can use in their classrooms. This is the more educationally sound approach." The union supports comprehensive sexuality education, which includes information about contraceptives as well as abstinence.
The canceled sessions will be replaced by two workshops led by staff members of the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University. The group trains teachers in comprehensive sexuality education.
You don't know the stranglehold Planned Parenthood, and NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) has on public school policy.
They rule!--(or they try to!)
Right to Life...and CPC'S (Crisis Pregnancy Centers) would love to have the access that pro-abortion folks have.
In our county, .....10 years ago.....we had to literally wake-up the entire county (and did!!--just a grassroots effort)...to make them aware of the Sex-Ed that was being introduced into the system.
By direct action, research and diligent school board attending....over several months...we stopped the abortion agenda sex-ed curriculum, and passed an abstinence only curriculum.
But it was extremely hard work!!!
The operative word here is "feel" - these children have been taught that it is all based on emotions. No darlin', these people "think" - and when they do, they arrive at a reasoned conclusion: abortion is murder, pure and simple (well, maybe not "pure" and certainly not "simple.")
"We have no ax to grind." About the biggest ax one can imagine. It kills a million babies each year.
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