Parents Find Maine Schools Unresponsive to Sex-Ed Concerns
by Jim Brown
March 30, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Conservatives in Maine are demanding changes in how the issue of human sexuality is taught in public schools. Parents across the state have been protesting the schools' sex education practices and curricula but, seemingly, to no avail. One Maine high school, according to a recent AgapePress report, ignored the concerns of parents and reaffirmed its backing of a profane and sexually explicit book for ninth-grade students. In light of this incident and others like it, some pro-family citizens are beginning to see a pattern in state education officials' responses to protests regarding the handling of sexuality and sex education in the schools.
In the city of Westbrook, Maine, some parents argue that public school teachers merely pay lip service to abstinence while instructing their students on how to use various forms of birth control. Many parents feel the local school system has ignored their concerns -- even despite learning that a teacher in the district actually runs a website promoting the idea of "sexual rights" for infants and children.
Michael Heath, executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, says the Westbrook citizens' protest against the school district's contraceptive-based sex education curriculum is being led by physicist Dr. George Rodrigues.
A variety of issues motivate Rodrigues, Heath notes, "but chief among them is the fact that in the school, serving on the staff, is a man who's part of a radical group that advocates [lowering the age of consent] for sex below the age of 12 and [also advocates for] the sexual rights of children -- really bizarre stuff."
Although the scientist and community activist has brought the revelation about the "sexual rights" advocate to light for debate in the school system, Heath says faculty and school board members are not prepared to meet him in a discussion forum because he is a formidable opponent who does his research and has the backing of area mothers and fathers. Still, Rodrigues has definitely helped raise community awareness.
Westbrook parents are waking up, the Christian Civic League spokesman maintains, but their growing alarm has not emerged fast enough to suit the pro-family leader.
"It's sad," Heath observes, "that it has to be too late for so many young people who are getting their cues regarding sexual development from so-called experts, who are actually promoting ideas that will destroy them and destroy their capacity to enjoy sexuality within marriage and to live decent and modest and moral lives with respect to sexuality."
And despite the growing outcry, Heath adds, the local parents' protests have prompted no changes to the school district's curriculum so far. He says public schools in Westbrook and across Maine and the Northeastern U.S. are continuing to fail parents and children when it comes to teaching the issue of human sexuality responsibly.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
