Posted on 04/19/2002 10:44:06 PM PDT by Buffalo Bob
A school district in California is facing a federal lawsuit after representatives from Planned Parenthood were brought in to address a health class without parental notice.
School administrators at Arcata High School invited guest speakers from Planned Parenthood to address the freshman class. The topic to be covered was sexual education -- but more specifically, "homophobia" and homosexuality.
Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute says what took place during the class amounted to religious-based harassment.
"Planned Parenthood put all the kids in a circle and then they would ask them questions. If they answered the questions correctly, the children got to leave the circle and watch and look and stare at the quote-unquote intolerant kids inside the circle," Dacus says.
"Inside the circle, the final question asked of the children was, Do you have religious beliefs that ... homosexuality is a sin and therefore wrong? There was [sic] three girls who were left in the middle of the circle feeling very demeaned, very put down."
Dacus says such exercises are all too common in California schools. "These kinds of programs are becoming the norm, not the exception," he says. "Theyre becoming much more the rule, and that is why its so important to protect our children from this kind of stigmatizing trauma thats taking place against Christian kids with Christian family backgrounds."
Dacus says the exercise violated both state and federal law when it was performed without prior written parental consent. The parents of at least one Christian student are considering legal action against the school district.
Great example, that is exactly what I'm talking about. In our society the gov't operates by our consent. We do have the power to change the gov't. We pay for the schools with our taxes. We elect the school boards who set policy. We elected legislators who make the laws that govern the schools. We have the power to fix any problem. It bothers me that Christians seem more concerned with avoiding conflict than exercising their God-given rights to protecting their children's rights. Here the school broke state and federal law by allowing those activists in. Thank God at least one family is standing up for their kid's rights. By protecting their kid's rights, they are protecting all the children.
But, keeping your child in that school to save the others is not the thing to do. You will probably end up saving no one and your child may end up damaged permanently.
I'm not suggesting that anyone let their kids be permanently harmed. But lets be honest, if we flee everytime some challenges our childrens faith, or their rights. We will be harming our own children too. Many of these conflicts are minor and the parents have the law on their side. All I'm suggesting is that we try to fix the problem (like the parents in the story), before we turn tail and run. I'm also suggesting that we don't ignore our neighbors. Remember the story of the Good Samaritan, he encounter someone in need and did his best to help. If we are aware of a problem in a school, we should do our best to help fix it.
The Children in the story above wouldn't be damaged permanently by some outsider attacking their beliefs one time. However they might be damaged if their parents flee from the challenge the activists pose, rather than refuting it. I do know people who have abandoned the Christian faith, because their parents refused to answer the questions that they encountered.
If there is a situation where the school simply isn't teaching. Then you should pull your children out. Many years ago, I saw a news story about two of Chicago's inner city schools. The public school was a complete failure. Literally it had a 100% drop out rate. Across the street was a very demanding private school, where the children excelled. In a situation like that, there is only one school to put your kids in. It is the private one.
However it bothers me, Christians who are suppose to be filled with the love of God can know of schools like that, can know that the children going there will be harmed, and do absolutely nothing. Not even regard it as something that they should be concerned about.
The bad school in the news story has been reformed. The problems have been fixed. Children attending that school will have a future. Like I said above these problems can be fixed. I just wish that Christians were on the side of fixing the problems.
There is one very important point that must be made. If parents are unwilling to defend their children now. When will they be? When home schools are outlawed? When private religious schools are under complete gov't regulation. The activists that are causing the harm in our public schools have made it clear that they want control over all students. If parents won't take a stand now, will they when the activists are much stronger?
Oh I agree that parents are not always welcome, I'd be shocked if they were. I just want people (esp. Christians) to care enough to take a stand. My motto is do the minimum! People shouldn't try to(or expect to) change the world. Rather they should try to find what specific thing (minimum) God want's them to do. And then do it faithfully. For most it will be voting, praying, and maybe giving money(to support lawsuits.) The minimum is different for different people. For a few it will mean getting involved with politics, or becoming a teacher, etc.
I don't expect us to win every battle, or solve all the problems. But there are so many problems that could be fixed, if people tried. Take abortion for example. Only half of Christian voters bother to vote, and a large number of them don't vote pro-life. If most Christians would vote pro-life regularly. At the very least we would have more pro-life senators. Could you imagine the impact that a few extra pro-life votes would have over time. For example what if we had the votes to put Bork on the Surpreme Court instead of Kennedy? etc.
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