Governor Kitzhaber has put himself in charge of Oregon's
Education System and Oregon's healthcare network:
the Oregon Health Authority.
to our children and
their families.
That threat includes the
Network of School Based Health Centers (SBHCs); the grades K-12 Comprehensive
Sexuality Education Standards that the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) promotes;
and the Annual Adolescent Sexuality Conference in Seaside (ASC).
One part of the Triple Threat: The SBHCs are sold to communities as
basic healthcare for children. However,
as SBHC advocates are working toward implementing a clinic within your school,
and as their Grant-Funded (your money!) planning continues, parents and school
supporters learn that this “basic healthcare” actually and must include
the offering of contraception, abortifacients, abortion and other medical
services touted as treatment for the sexual health of youth, and parents are
not kept informed as their children are accessing these treatment(s). If parents research the Oregon SBHC Standards
for Certification, they will learn that HIPAA law and Minors' Rights require
that these treatments or referrals be part of a School Based Health
Center. SBHC advocates may tell
communities that the clinic can be designed to reflect local values and not
offer reproductive/contraception services. THIS IS NOT THE TRUTH. Advocates attempted this ploy in Clatsop
County, but with months of persistence and research, parents and school
supporters were able to expose the truth about the SBHC agenda, and were
successful in stopping the implementation of a clinic in Astoria High School.
Another part of the Triple Threat: In 2012, revisions to Oregon's grades
K-12 Human Sexuality Education Standards (OAR 581-022-1440) were
initially passed by the ODE and hidden as a “consent item” at their
meeting. Brad Victor, ODE's Sexuality
Education Specialist at the time, bragged about being able to “Push the
Envelope One More Time, Bingo Boom” with this consent process. Mr. Victor also brags that Oregon's Sex Ed.
Is one of the “most progressive in the country”. These comments were made at the Adolescent
Sexuality Conference along with Ms. Monica Rodriquez' comment that Oregon Sex
Ed. “does not go far enough”!
This July, after adopting the extremely controversial
curriculum deemed “ODE approved” in the Scappoose School District, one of the
School Board members told parents who spoke strongly against the curriculum
that, “You just have to trust the teachers”! (what if the curriculum itself is not
trustworthy?)
A third part of Gov. Kitzhaber's Triple Threat
to our children is the Annual Adolescent Sexuality Conference held in
Seaside, OR. This is a two (school) day
event (next one already scheduled for April 7&8, 2014) in which students
are encouraged to attend the conference, be “trained” in sexual behavior and
choices, then return to their school to “educate their peers” and advocate for
SBHCs. The conference promotes the theme
of “Empowering Youth” to make important decisions about their sexual behavior,
and that they do not have to include their parents in these decisions!
Having attended the 2013 event, I can tell you that vendor
displays included explicit images and “suggestions” and that the
break-out/training sessions included subjects such as the fascination of Porn
with discussions and materials which compromise the health and safety of the
youth attending. There is concern that
some Oregon Revised Statutes may have been violated at this conference. In one of the breakout sessions titled, “I
Say Porn, You Say Porn”, sponsored by a youth empowerment group based in
Eugene, YEPSA (Youth for the Education and Prevention of Sexual Assault),
adults suggested that teen girls could safely send nude pictures of themselves
as long as it was to their boyfriends and not to just everyone. There have been recent cases in Florida and
Montana in which teens have sent such pictures then, because of resulting
harassment, have committed suicide.
There was even a case locally in Clatskanie in which a teen girl was
severely harassed and physically bullied after sending such pictures. This was a front page story in the Oregonian,
August 6, 2013. Those receiving these
pictures are in possession of Child Porn.
There is currently a lawsuit (filed 10/15/13) in the U.S. District Court
against Clatskanie School District #6J
and a School Administrator at the time of the harassment, Jeff Baughman.
Update on the 2014 Adolescent Sexuality
Conference, ASC, Seaside, OR: One of the
keynote speakers at the conference is Cory Silverberg, co-founder of “Come As
You Are” cooperative in Toronto, Canada.
This is a Sex Toy & Education Shop in Toronto, but this fact
is not mentioned in Mr. Silverberg's bio for the Conference. He will also be the presenter for a workshop
at the conference titled: “From Texting
to Teledildonics: Is Technology
Changing Sex?” (note: “Teledildonics
cannot be found in the dictionary!?) This workshop is intended for “Youth &
Adults”. Mr. Silverberg is also writing
a 3-part “inclusive” series of books for children about gender and
sexuality. We have also learned that an
organization called “Center for Sexual Pleasure & Health” (CSPH)
is promoting the Seaside Adolescent Sexuality Conference on their website. This Center is located in Rhode Island-- One
wonders why an East Coast entity is
interested in the ASC, thousands of miles away!?
There are 39 Work Sessions within the Conference and
several General Assembly presentations.
If you review the written summaries of these workshops, you
will seriously question how Governor Kitzhaber's Oregon Health
Authority and his Oregon Department of Education can possibly
consider this “Best Practice” for the education of our youth. Please ask them!
I believe that if School Boards, School Administration/Staff
and parents were actually asked to make the choice to spend millions of public
dollars on SBHCs, Sexuality Education, and the Adolescent Sexuality Conference,
or to spend those dollars on the Education which we expect and which our
children need and deserve, that the choice would overwhelmingly be for the
latter! I also believe that Governor
Kitzhaber's Triple Threat is a glaring reason to
strengthen Oregon's Charter School law and the use of vouchers.
Christine Bridgens
Warrenton, Oregon
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