The Kansas State Board of Education’s conservative majority just couldn’t leave well enough alone, deciding on a 6-4 vote Wednesday to meddle in Kansas school districts’ sex education classes by requiring that parents “opt in” their children by signing permission slips. Most districts, including Wichita’s, now have “opt-out” policies.
The latest state board blunder tramples the concept of local control of schools and, due to the inherent difficulties of getting parental consent, will result in fewer students learning basic reproductive facts, including the dangers of unprotected sex, according to health experts who testified to the board.
The Eagle editorial board didn’t like the idea of the state Legislature meddling in this matter, but in light of the state board’s disastrous mandate, a Senate bill requiring opt-out sex ed (or better: letting local school boards decide between the two options) now looks like a necessary corrective.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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31 Comments
Typical Wingnuts: they only distrust ‘big guvmint’ when they aren’t in charge.
When the American Taliban, i.e. the State Board of Education, is on the job, the state IS the church.
Kansas just might be stupid enough to vote the dinosaurs back in come November. I’m trying to hold onto my faith, though.
Can’t we just dismantle the KBOE?
I have said that the Religious right will not go quietly. Look for Churches to start re-amping the election talk like they did to get these six in. The only porblem they will have this time is that the rest of the voters now Know who these board members are! This time around the R.R. will not be help by the unknowningYes me!!!!
Interesting thought, Tara, but the extreme would never allow talk of dinosaurs. After all, they have ‘proof’ that the earth is only 6,000 years old, and dinosaurs never existed. The fossils and other evidence were “planted” by God to make us wonder…according to the rabid extremists.
Why 6,000 years? I think that is because if you count back all the ‘begats’ to Adam/Eve, it works out to about that length of time.
Fine and dandy with me if they want to hold those opinions..but when they try to force them on others is where I get my dander up..
We need to have government fix the blunders of other parts of the government? Something is wrong with that picture. Dispand the KS BOE to save money AND trouble.
I remember USD 259, while I was going to school was kind of wierd. We had our first sex education class in 5th grade and I don’t remember anything about parental notification, but it might be sent in the mail, so there probably was one.
In middle school 8th grade I remember sex education had to have a parent signature before we took the course. It was an opt-in.
High School was an opt-out in Health Class.
I’m not for sure if things changed over the years or it was the discretion of the teacher or school for that policy.
Sex bad . . . me, KBOE say so. Me, KBOE, no like sex. Sex dirty, make KBOE feel bad. Me, KBOE, like banana.
The Religious Right will have the only teenagers still believing that the Stork brings the babies!
What I remember about sex ed in school was that we didn’t have it.
But this just reinforces what I keep saying–anti abortion people don’t want sex ed (contraception) either.
They want to keep sex shameful and taboo. Period.
It’s that kind of repression that leads to The Phelps’ and gay-bashing gays like Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and Spokane mayor Jim West, indicted for pedophilia.
When, on when, will we we get rid of those bozos? Biggest mistake the Legislature/voters ever made was making the KBOE a separate organization that doesn’t answer to the Legislature. Not that I have a lot of faith in the Legislature, but it takes a lot more votes to let in stupidity that it does with the Abrams/Morris morons.
Not only does our school board specialize in uneducation. Our neigbhors are against family planning . Here’s an article from the Kansas City Star. My favorite line goes…
“The House voted 96-59 to delete the funding for contraception and infertility treatments after Rep. Susan Phillips told lawmakers that anti-abortion groups such as Missouri Right to Life were opposed to the spending.
“If you hand out contraception to single women, we’re saying promiscuity is OK as a state, and I am not in support of that,” Phillips, R-Kansas City, said in an interview.”
okay, let me get this straight. The religious right is against teaching our children anything but abstinence.The religious right is against providing contraceptives for family planning.The religious right is against abortion.
Just chain the women to the bedstead and keep them barefoot and pregnant?
Too bad the religious right is too busy telling other people how to run their lives while ignoring things at home.
According to the KS Open Records, Terry Fox’s son has been arrested 8 times in the past 2 months.. for things ranging from drug/alcohol violations to ’severe animal cruelty’.
While I can’t blame him directly for his son’s mis-deeds, it seems ironic that people like him try to run other peoples’ lives, and cannot manage his own….
Of course! If our teenagers don’t know there’s such a thing as sex, how can they have it?If we deny contraception and the new HPV vaccine to single people, they will be too afraid to copulate. If we can control peoples’ sex lives, we can control them. That’s the mantra of the right.Unfortunately, history doesn’t seem to bear that out. Sex has been around considerably longer than sex ed., and pregnancy and disease have never been an effective deterrent. They do however produce a fair amount of guilt, which is an easy emotion to manipulate. People who feel guilty tend to put a lot more money in the collection plate!
I agree with ProudLib they need someone making sure they “sheriff” their own. They don’t even use the audit powers given them to keep school districts in compliance with State & Federal mandates.
Well raptor, look at the bright side. Terry’s son may have a few “little” problems, but…
AT LEAST HE ISNT GAY!!!!
Terry wont have to send his boy to a christian “gay fixing” torture camp like some people we wont mention. How did that work out?
Ksfarmgrrl,Who are you talking about?
I’ve heard stories about “gay fixing” camps like Love In Action, and they sound terrible!
Tara, the rumor is rampant in our community, but we are all courting a lawsuit if we name the name. Ask any gay person in wichita, they can likely tell you the elected official suspected of sending his son away to be “cured”.
Farm Gal, Tara,I have a friend whose parents sent him to one of those “cure” organizations. After 9mos. torture, he was still gay, but it sure cured him of christianity!
Gay people are just people, they should be counted as equals in our community.
The picture of the monkeys befits this thread, and is truly representative of the brainwashed American public. (85% of their wealth being controlled by 13% of the American population)
today’s lesson for you capitalist apes:monkey see, monkey do
Good to know about Terry Fox’s son Raptor.
Gay fixing camps? Torture? I want to know more about this.
Hi again hegel. Do you ever stop to debate? You seem to migrate from post to post. Debate is pretty quiet this late. It used to be just me and this other guy. Stay still on a post and indulge me.
Good to know about Terry Fox’s son Raptor.
Gay fixing camps? Torture? I want to know more about this.
Hi again hegel. Do you ever stop to debate? You seem to migrate from post to post. Debate is pretty quiet this late. It used to be just me and this other guy. Stay still on a post and indulge me.
If it’s true, I’m not surprised Terry Fox has problems with his son. It’s too bad about the severe animal cruelty, that’s pretty diagnostic of someone who will have lifelong problems.Sounds like the good Pastor Fox needs to clean up his own back yard before he starts looking into everyone else’s.
Before I spout off more, I need to do a little research about “gay fixing”, but first I have to stop laughing at jed’s post about curing the boy of christianity. So true jed, so true.
The mormons are notorious for this kind of torture, and even had a treatment “facility” (read dungeon) in the basement of one of the buildings at BYU. They did “treatment” like plunging people into ice water to purge them of impure thoughts. They did desensitizing stuff like getting electric shocks while watching gay porn. Real enlightened treatment.
Such experiences have not only driven gay folks away from their churches and families, but there are cases where it has led to teen suicide.
I dont think these camps are a matter of sex education or the BOE, other than the taliban just creates a generally hostile atmosphere for anyone questioning their gender or orientation. We never know which straw is going to break the camel’s back.
Sad but true. I’ll research more.
Farm Gal,I have two friends who came out to their ministers back in the ’70’s, and were told that suicide was a lesser sin than homosexuality. Luckily, they didn’t take that advice, but I’ll always wonder how many kids did.
Rapt,Preacher’s sons have always been legendary sinners! Makes you wonder….
Jed: You and your stories.
We have a communist on board. Welcome Comrade. Perhaps you can do for us what you did for the USSR and the gem of communism…E. Berlin.
Out,When you’ve spent a lifetime keeping your eyes and ears open to the world around you, you collect quite a few stories!
Look at what’s happening in France today. The have-nots have spoken up against their feudal lords! This is inevitable, the bourgeoisie shall come under attack, and the assets of the people will be taken by force. You are next America!
I hear ya, Jed!