Mears Middle School, a 7th-8th grade school in Anchorage, will be rolling out its new health class at the end of this month that features sections on “gender identity,” abortion, masturbation and details of how to use condoms and other forms of contraception.
The two-week Human Growth & Development Unit starts on Halloween Day, Oct. 31.
In order for children to participate in the class, their parents must first sign off, in accordance with state law.
Apparently, a number of parents have failed to give the school a green light to talk with their kids about various gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender identities.
On Oct. 23, school counselor Leslie Hannam sent a “reminder” email to parents, telling them that they must sign off on the health unit syllabus before their child can take the class.
State law requires Alaska schools to get parental permission before teaching any material that has to do with human sexuality, including controversial gender identity theories.
The gender identity section of the health unit will take place in week one when students learn about puberty, adolescence, anatomy, and gender identity.
Week two will introduce children to sex, various birth control methods and contraceptives, STDs, pregnancy, abortion and abstinence. That week will also include a guest speaker from the Municipality of Anchorage Health Department.
“If your student did not return a signed syllabus at the beginning of the semester, I will be sending another one home,” Hannam told parents in her email. “This serves as permission to participate. If you would like to preview materials, reply to this message with a request. If you would not like your child to participate in both or one of the weeks, reply to this email to opt-out.”
Once the unit is over Hannam plans to send home “resources” for parents to “continue the conversation at home.”
Some of these resources, she said, are not approved by the school district for general use, but she is making them available for parents to preview and “share with your child in your own home.”
30 Comments
When is the school district going to get the message, parent don’t want this garbage taught to their kids at school? When are parents going to ban together and replace the hard headed liberals forcing this garbage on all of us? It’s about enough I think. Your not any better than the rest of us. You don’t need a special bill of rights. Deal with life!
Leslie Hannam needs to be fired. She is attempting to sexualize children.
I cannot imagine what the hallways are going to be like between classes, during the lunch hour, after school after learning about masturbation, orgasms, abortion and so on. Wow! I hope that parents put a stop to this lunacy!
This awesome teacher deserves a raise. I am very glad to know these adolescents will be armed with real information and real knowledge about how to protect themselves and figure out their individual identities. If my school had taught us this kind of information, a lot less kids would have wound up with STDs and a lot fewer girls would have been raped and/or had to get abortions.
I support requiring parental permission to teach about sexual topics. But it is pretty irresponsible and dangerous for any parent NOT to want their kid to be informed and know how to protect themselves.
Gay kids exist. Bi kids exists. Trans kids exist. Straight kids exist. They all deserve to be affirmed and properly informed about their existences.
They deserve to have adults respect their childhood. They deserve adults who will not attempt to sexualize them and act out their adult traumatized fetishes. They deserve respect and honesty in education, which centers around reading, writing and maths.
This path you describe (that I have heard before) will not lead to a bright, new future but will decrease the tolerance for deviant lifestyles- and probably do so dramatically. Stay away from the kids and we can be tolerant of adults who follow other lifestyles. Otherwise it all goes. Please have the wisdom to see this.
What part of “it’s the parents responsibility to teach their children about sex” do you not get? Where’s the data backing your claim that if your school had taught this information there would be less STD’s, rapes and abortion? And no there are not homosexual kids, or bi-sexual kids or trans gender kids. There are only CONFUSED kids who are influenced by groomers like you. The irresponsibility and dangerous exists in what YOU want taught to someone else’s children. It is the responsibility of parents and sane adults to protect and educate children and that responsibility cannot and should not be given to strangers in the classroom.
Just a tiny example. .. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0024658
There is reams of data about the massive spike in teen pregnancy and std transmission during the Bush era ‘abstinence only’ education system.
Teenagers aren’t stupid. They are scientists with growing bodies that are being flooded with sex hormones. This is not difficult to understand. The more knowledge they have, the better the CB choices they can make. If they have no knowledge, then they can only figure it put as they go, which is much riskier.
I already said I agreed with requiring parental consent for teaching about sexual topics. Thats literally what this article was about…the school following the law and getting parental consent.
A wise parent would tell their kids to pay close attention to these topics in class and then make sure they knownthey can come to mom/dad with any follow up questions.
Kids this age all have cell phones and internet access. They are GOING to be exposed to sexual content whether you like it or not. They are already looking at pornography and masturbating and most kids have their first penetrative sexual experience at age 15-16. They NEED this kind of education.
Wherever you got your information from, you should look elsewhere for real facts.
Gay and bi people aren’t confused. They are gay and bi! Your entire argument makes 0 sense. You want to say that being gay/bi/trans is some kind of choice…but for that to be true, then everybody would be naturally Bi and be making a conscious choice to be straight or gay. Thats idiotic. Most lgbt kids know they are different from other kids WAY before puberty. Before they even have the words to describe how they are different they already know it.
This is what parents are for, not teachers with unknown, and increasingly vacant morals. They are the ones responsible to teach their children about these issues.
Teachers are trained education professionals. Parents are not.
Terry Stires – Teachers are trained professionals to teach the basics, reading, writing, arithmetic, history, etc. but not morals. As evidenced by the lack of morals that pervade society, many of which are championed at colleges where these trained professionals are educated, PARENTS are charged with teaching morals to their children.
Clark,
How many children do you have?
Once again, so glad I pulled my kids out of public school. Private schools are in partnerships with homeschool coops, which makes it affordable for YOU. Think about it. Best decision I ever, ever made!
We homeschooled our three sons from 2001-2016. Zero regrets. They are all happy, healthy, well educated adults now. Good Luck to you and yours.
After this class, they will have an advanced class. It will include sexual positions for boys and men, how to find and groom a partner that is underage, why you should hate your parents for not affirming you gender.
Clark weirdo’s like you are reason ASD is upside down.
Science/Health class should be about science/health. Prevention of STD’s would be ok to be taught in the correct context. Gender identity is not ok to be taught in any context. For the teacher to go beyond the approved curriculum outside of the classroom is grounds for dismissal. Just one more example of educators bringing THIER beliefs into the classroom as truth and normal. Comfortably knowing that there will not be any repercussions for the educator’s out of the box actions.
Most schools don’t have official classes about gender identity. Most schools here havent for most of our history. Yet lgbt people still exist. There is absolutely 0 evidence that educating people about the existence of lgbt people makes them more likely to BE lgbt. If there was, everybody would be talking about it and the context of the conversation would be way different.
Joe, if one of your kids is gay or trans, don’t you want them to still be taught how to survive and protect themselves?
Keep YOUR destructive Christian beliefs out of my child’s classroom. I want my child to learn about the big bad world from trained professionals, not sexually repressed busybodies.
Sexually repressed busybody…are you looking in the mirror again??
What the heck is this garbage!? Out in the bush sex crimes are exploding and here in Anchorage and other hub cities perversion is freely taught???
You are exactually why all my grand children
Are in private parent monitored schools
Keep your children out of public schools
See the question mark after my comment, genius?
Clark, teen pregnancies have been falling in the U.S. for the past 20 years according to the World Population Review. The Bush presidency is included in that time frame. However my point is; that it is NOT the responsibility of a school board to usurp parental authority. So called “opt out” options are capricious at best because the information should not be taught in a school to begin with. Parents should be given the opportunity to approve of any curriculum before it is introduced in a school. Children need and deserve guidance, not only information. Whatever we tell children, we also teach them. And what we teach them will shape their personalities, attitudes, and values throughout their entire lives. Comprehensive Sexuality Education usually implies an approach to human sexuality FAR FROM what the majority of parents deem fit for their children. Curricula professing to represent a CSE approach are replete with controversial topics, including teaching very young children about sexual pleasure, sexual orientation, gender identity, and access to and use of contraceptives, abortion, and other drugs and medical procedures that carry their own health risks. There’s no getting away from it, children are not equipped to deal with this and NEED guidance from their parents! Finally, a John Hopkins report refutes the myth that homosexuals are “born that way.” https://www.independentsentinel.com/john-hopkins-refutes-myth-that-homosexuals-are-born-this-way/
Well I’ll give you credit for at least attempting to show some work on the topic.
Small problem with the source you touted though. It’s a discredited, unacademic screed that was roundly rejected by the actual scientific and medical community, including the Johns Hopkins Institute itself. It wasnt even published as academia. They published it as an opinion piece so that they could omit whatever information they wanted and avoid their work getting peer reviewed. In other words, its garbage. https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-lgbtq-hopkins-20160928-story.html
Meanwhile students scores for reading math science and history is dropped close to the bottom. Students are being taught to sexualize their needs which is very unwise, as it will lead them to trauma and painful outcomes. This is grooming them and inviting confusion. This time of their life is already difficult for them. Let’s not engage in this social contagion! Parents what do you need to be equipped to fight against this and then also train your children?
http://www.thechoicetochoose.com
Healthy, informed sexual decision making with an abstinence message is urgently needed to help turn this ship! I’m available to help!
Sexualize their needs, not specialize! I’m
I just read that our kids are behind in reading & math scores!! Maybe, just maybe Alaska should concentrate on teaching our kids what they are in school for! If the schools can’t do their job then parents need to otherwise the schools want to teach them to fail in real life!
I find it hard to believe parents want to promote the ignorance of their own children. But, that is their right. Because parental rights are being honored, parents are given the right to withhold consent. Exercise that right and then sit down. You certainly should not be complaining about a teacher who performs her duties in a professional manner. And, you should not be trying to interrupt the education of students whose parents consent to have their children educated.
This garbage is exactly why this country is in the state it is in, promoting gay, lesbian trash and and attempting to teach children its ok and ok to change their gender. This crap isnt ok, look in the mirror and look between your legs, that’s what you were born with. The rise of STD’s like aids is because of this immorality, seek professional help, get real.
There is a very simple solution: pull your kids out of the public schools. Stop complaining and take action.