Letter to SHAC from community member - Read at February 7, 2018 SHAC meeting
My name is [name redacted] and I am a proud mother of 4. Also, I am someone that has been involved in community work for quite some years now. Primarily working with catholic families in a Church located in East Austin.
Last month, I had the chance to attend the AISD public board meeting, and became concerned about some material that 2 members of the audience presented to the Board in regards to the sex ed programs currently going on within our schools.
I learned that day that Planned Parenthood distributed a flier in Covington Middle School, to 12-year-old kids, directing them to a youtube channel where they could find their “Consent” video series. So, I read the flier and watched the youtube videos and I was very shocked at the realization that our kids are exposed to such material. Those videos are NOT designed to warn kids away from permissive and harmful sex experiences, but rather encourage them. Instead of providing options and strengthening morality and values, we see a blatant promotion of sex, including homosexual acts. I am both Hispanic and Catholic, and I just want to reiterate here that the implicit messages in those videos represent an aggressive attack to our tradition and values. The question for the SHAC is: did AISD asked the Parents for consent in order to present such a material to our kids?. And if not: why?
For parents like me, and for many of those Hispanic parents that I know, this is just not right. This “non-judgemental” view of sexuality is not only pushing our kids into risky sexual behaviors but also destroying the work that we as Parents do educating them in principles and morals. For us, the moral values set forth by our Catholic faith is fundamental. In fact, this is the very center of our lives because we believe that based on this foundation is that we will reap good fruits. In this regard, I’d like to see AISD to become our Partner and not our foe in the way we form this precious treasure that are our children.
To conclude I want to say that rather than the 'non-judgmental' view proposed by organizations such as Planned Parenthood, children need to be clearly steered toward abstinence as the best choice. Children need our guidance in this matter, just as we would steer them completely away from drugs or drinking or engaging in any other risky behavior, rather than, say, providing clean needles for them to inject drugs "safely."
Thank you.
My name is [name redacted] and I am a proud mother of 4. Also, I am someone that has been involved in community work for quite some years now. Primarily working with catholic families in a Church located in East Austin.
Last month, I had the chance to attend the AISD public board meeting, and became concerned about some material that 2 members of the audience presented to the Board in regards to the sex ed programs currently going on within our schools.
I learned that day that Planned Parenthood distributed a flier in Covington Middle School, to 12-year-old kids, directing them to a youtube channel where they could find their “Consent” video series. So, I read the flier and watched the youtube videos and I was very shocked at the realization that our kids are exposed to such material. Those videos are NOT designed to warn kids away from permissive and harmful sex experiences, but rather encourage them. Instead of providing options and strengthening morality and values, we see a blatant promotion of sex, including homosexual acts. I am both Hispanic and Catholic, and I just want to reiterate here that the implicit messages in those videos represent an aggressive attack to our tradition and values. The question for the SHAC is: did AISD asked the Parents for consent in order to present such a material to our kids?. And if not: why?
For parents like me, and for many of those Hispanic parents that I know, this is just not right. This “non-judgemental” view of sexuality is not only pushing our kids into risky sexual behaviors but also destroying the work that we as Parents do educating them in principles and morals. For us, the moral values set forth by our Catholic faith is fundamental. In fact, this is the very center of our lives because we believe that based on this foundation is that we will reap good fruits. In this regard, I’d like to see AISD to become our Partner and not our foe in the way we form this precious treasure that are our children.
To conclude I want to say that rather than the 'non-judgmental' view proposed by organizations such as Planned Parenthood, children need to be clearly steered toward abstinence as the best choice. Children need our guidance in this matter, just as we would steer them completely away from drugs or drinking or engaging in any other risky behavior, rather than, say, providing clean needles for them to inject drugs "safely."
Thank you.