Sex education classes are lacking according to Wilson

Lawyers and health educators say most teens - and even many parents - are unaware that even consensual teenage sex is often a crime. The patchwork of laws and ages from state to state leaves many confused and critics say more education is badly needed.

"We do a disgraceful job of educating kids about the very real consequences that they face," said J. Tom Morgan, a former DeKalb County district attorney who has a new book coming out called "Ignorance Is No Defense: A Teenagers Guide to Georgia Law."

"If society is going to punish them as adults," said Morgan, "then society ought to educate them."

Wilson said in an interview Monday that he hopes to use his newfound celebrity to raise awareness among high school and college students. He said sex education classes are lacking.

What a remarkable young man Wilson has turned out to be. I do hope that someone helps him attend the college of his choice. It's amazing that with everything he has been through his focus is on helping others.

This gives sex ed a whole new meaning

Some parents in Fort Bend County are outraged after their children said they witnessed a pair of eighth-graders engaged in a sex act, right in the middle of class.

HT HE&OS

What's in a name?

The Pittsburgh Public Schools will drop "public" from its name and adopt a new, standardized way of referring to its schools as part of a campaign to brighten and strengthen the district's image.

By dropping "public" from its name, Randall Taylor said, the district might be able to avoid the negative attitude often associated with public schools.

Also, the district last night announced plans to upgrade its parent hotline into a "customer service center," another initiative aimed at boosting the district's image.
The plan includes better training for operators, the ability to send out thousands of phone messages or e-mails at once and a standard turnaround time for responding to parent complaints.

The district also said it was forming a committee to revise its curriculum on human reproduction. Mr. Roosevelt said the group will study the possibility of adding contraception to the curriculum. Currently, that subject is raised only in presentations by outside agencies. Students must have their parents' consent to attend those sessions.

Maybe doing something to improve the education the students are receiving would improve their image more. Because while they can take the "public" out of their name if that is all they are doing they haven't achieved much. Apparently these loonies equate changing somethings name withe real improvement the parent hotline is now the customer service center.

The one change they are considering making that involves more then a name change concerns handing out contraception to students

Since some "so called progressives" disapprove of homeschooling I suppose we could change the name to "schooling" and everything would be hunky dory.

A principal without principles

A principal and a teacher at a suburban elementary school quit amid allegations they were caught on video having sex in the Principal's office, authorities say.

Kim Grivakis, the mother of a 13-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy who attend the school, said she received a copy of the 2 1/2-hour DVD in the mail Wednesday. She organized a meeting Thursday with other parents to call for action from the school board.

Grivakis said she could identify Coleman and Lofton and Reed on the tape.
"It made me sick," Grivakis said. "It's very graphic. I can't tell you how graphic because I have two children standing right here."

A copy of the DVD viewed by The Associated Press shows a man and a woman hugging, kissing and engaged in various sex acts inside an office. A separate portion of the tape, apparently from a different time, shows another woman hugging and touching the same man.

Read the rest of the story in The Sun Herald.

Why Homeschoolers Care About Public Schools

A certain blogger delights in pointing out problems they perceive with homeschooling (without any facts to back up their imaginary problems). While I personally think they should mind their own business as my homeschooling my own children in no way concerns them, I reserve the right to point out the flaws in public schools for these reasons.

• I pay taxes and my tax money goes to support public schools. As a tax payer I have every right to demand that my money be spent wisely.
• I have relatives in public schools, I have every right to be concerned that they aren't getting the education they deserve.
• Every citizen has the right to be outraged by the number of teachers sexually abusing their students, giving students inappropriate material and leaving their classes unattended.

This same blogger actually DEFENDED the public school teacher who made 8th graders read aloud explicit 'sex' questions.

Teachers: Did you ever need to get some classroom material ready and just didn’t have time, and so you clicked on a web site that was recommended and printed off a section of it, and handed it out to your students and had them read from it out loud in class, then get fired?

It could happen to you. We don’t know yet if Health Teacher Scott Groff of Cook County Illinois will get fired (I hope not … this looks like a really stupid but not fatal mistake) for pretty much doing just that.

I wonder how many other professionals could use the excuse that they just didn't have the time to prepare for ___________. Imagine a courtroom where a lawyer just didn't have the time to research his brief or a doctor who just didn't have time to prepare properly for surgery. Why should our children's education get less attention to details? Teachers you are PAID to get classroom material ready - "the I didn't have time" excuse doesn't cut it. Even if you are generous enough to give the teacher a pass for accidentally clicking on the wrong website and printing out and distributing the wrong material, exactly HOW does that justify him continuing to force the students to read the material out loud. After the FIRST question most people would have realize something was wrong and called a halt to the 'lesson'.

Greg immediately counters with a mythical homeschool parent who might read something inappropriate (and who gets to determine what is appropriate - in my book it would be THE PARENTS) to their own kids.

The good news is that this terrible, embarrassing goof occurred in a public school where administrators could jump in and, working with the teaching staff and the parents, fix everything. Who knows how many times this happens in a home schooling environment, and just goes along undetected and uncorrected? Probably several times a day.

Good news!!!!! Excuse me but there wasn't anything 'good' about this 'lesson'. Exactly HOW could you fix everything? The damage has already been done. The students have already been embarrassed and humiliated in class. Children do not come with a rewind button, I doubt any of them will forget the 'explicit sex lesson' they were forced to read out loud. Certainly these parents don't think the problem is fixed.

A health teacher made 8th graders read aloud explicit questions about oral sex and masturbation during a sex-education lesson at a suburban school this week, outraging parents who demanded the teacher be disciplined. The principal at Wolcott School in Thornton, said he learned of the lesson early Friday after numerous phone calls from parents and directed the health teacher to apologize to his class for the two-day lesson.Parents say this apology isn’t enough. They plan to attend the Thornton School District board meeting next week to demand that the 27-year-old teacher, Scott Groff, be suspended or fired.“My daughter brought it to our attention because she was disgusted with it,” said Grady Braley, father of a Wolcott 14-year-old. “There’s certain things at her age they need to know. But this was a how-to manual.”“It’s creepy, and I’d like to know why he’s still teaching.”

Another mom called the principal’s explanation “a lame excuse.” She said her daughter told her that classmates laughed during the lesson, but some were clearly uncomfortable with reading the material to the class.“This is not Porn 101. This is a school,” said the mom, who also asked not to be identified to spare her 14-year-old daughter further embarrassment in their tiny school. “This is putting girls and boys in harm’s way. It’s almost voyeurism.”

Read more here.

I agree with these parents, someone who exercises such poor judgement has no business educating our children. Unfortunately while the board is protecting the children at their school, Mr. Goff is free to seek employment elsewhere. How many other professionals could mess up royally and get PAID LEAVE?

The board of Thornton Elementary School District 154 decided Tuesday night that a teacher accused of handing out sexually explicit material to 8th graders in a health class would go on paid administrative leave immediately and his contract would not be renewed for the next school year.

Read the complete article here.

What 5th graders do when they are unsupervised in the classroom

Five fifth-graders were arrested Tuesday, four of them accused of having sex in an unsupervised classroom.

Students shouldn't be left unsupervised?

"It's not clear how long they were left alone but speculation is that it was about 15 minutes," Buckley said. "When no teacher showed up, the four began to have sex in the classroom with the other elementary students in the classroom with them."

I guess the school can call it 'sex education'?

Public School Has Explicit Sex Lesson

At Wolcott School in Thornton, Ill. a health teacher made 8th graders read aloud explicit questions about oral sex and masturbation during a sex-education lesson at a suburban school this week, outraging parents who demanded the teacher be disciplined.

While I am all for sex education this is WAY over the top.

The teacher made the printout from the "general questions" link, which is explicit and covers "G-spots," orgasms, anal sex, sexual positions and a how-to guide on masturbation.

Is it too much to expect public school teachers to show a modicum of common sense and to thoroughly review material they bring into the classroom?

News & Views

Frist Gets More Pork For His State

"I find it ironic that the Senate majority leader found time to publicly diagnose Terri Schiavo's case . . .

Ummmmmmmm I think he meant misdiagnose Terri Schiavo's case. The autopsy proved she was brain dead, contrary to what Frist said.

to insert 40 pages of language into the defense bill last year indemnifying the entire pharmaceutical industry . . . but he didn't manage to find the time to schedule the appropriations bills on the Senate floor," Obey said. "And as a result we are here with this mess tonight."

Yeah, you wold have thought the Senate Majority leader would have scheduled the appropriations bills first

Congress ended up passing a massive stopgap spending bill that continues federal funding at current levels until mid-February 2007. The criticism surprised Frist and angered his aides. "Dr. Frist has an exceptional record of service and these parting shots are not worthy of response, especially in light of the dignity and grace which has marked his tenure," said his communications director, Amy Call. Frist managed to stick some pork for the folks back home into the final bills passed, however. A sweeping tax, trade, Medicare and oil bill that passed early Saturday extended a sales tax deduction for taxpayers in states with no income tax. That helps Tennessee and Reid's home state of Nevada, as well as Washington, Alaska, Texas and Florida. Tennessee hospitals, meanwhile, got help covering uninsured and under-insured patients. And songwriters collectively got an estimated $3 million tax break, something many constituents in Nashville - nicknamed Music City, U.S.A. - will appreciate. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., a fiscal
conservative and Budget Committee chairman, was furious at his party's leaders, including Frist, for signing off on a package he said would add $39 billion to the nation's debt. "This is being done by the Republican leadership to the Republican membership," Gregg complained.

And they wonder why people voted for Democrats?

What Our Kids Are Learning In College

In October, senior Danny Tenenbaum wrote a column for The Badger Herald decrying the use of student fees for Sex Out Loud's pleasure programs. He said that, at a time of rising tuition, it was outrageous to allocate funding for such things. "You don't need to be a social or fiscal conservative to recognize the ridiculousness of sex-toy shopping spree funded by the students of an institute for higher education ... The lavish excess demonstrated in the Sex Out Loud's budget is nothing less than a slap in the face of the students of UW-Madison."
Zdero's parents aren't thrilled about the pleasure programs either. "They don't think that people should talk about this stuff in public, only with their partners," he said. "I say - 'How are couples even going to know what to talk about without programs like this?'"

It's too bad student fees are being spent on such nonsense.