Parents and activists in Keller, Texas, packed the district’s school board meeting after they uncovered a slew of graphic novels depicting oral sex and violent sexual assault in the district’s libraries.
This has been going on for years, and what prompted the New Hampshire law that provides an avenue for parents so that they can opt their children out of an objectionable assignment and replace it with something that is appropriate.
RSA 21-N:11: . . . IX-c. Require school districts to adopt a policy allowing an exception to specific coursematerial based on a parent’s or legal guardian’s determination that the material is objectionable. Such policy shall include a provision requiring the parent or legal guardian to notify the school principal or designee in writing of the specific material to which they object and a provision requiring an alternative agreed upon by the school district and the parent, at the parent’s expense, sufficient to enable the child to meet state requirements for education in the particular subject area.
This was a state law pushed by parent advocates like myself because of the warped and vile material assigned to children in our public schools. This should tell you that those in charge of your public school may not always have your child’s best interest at heart.
I’ve worked with parents around New Hampshire who’ve found extremely disturbing materials assigned to their children. But when it comes to sexual and graphic materials, we all need to question why an educator would think this is ok for any child in a public school.
Parents will question teachers assigning graphic sexual content. Who is this person, and do they have other nefarious intentions? Maybe, maybe not. It raises a red flag, and some of these parents will look at that teacher as a possible predator.
Today WMUR reported that a teacher in the Timberlane school district was accused of sexually assaulting a student. On the same day, there was a post by a parent in New Market questioning a video that was shown to 15-year-old children in school.
Do teachers realize that when parents see this kind of graphic sexual content included in their child’s school day, they question the intentions of that teacher? Do they have nefarious reasons for introducing soft-porn to children?
How does a child sexual predator groom a child? According to the teacher who is blowing the whistle on this, they are teaching children to sext, and to view pornography.
Rebecca Friedrichs says that they are “grooming our children for sexual predators to use them.”
Was this the purpose in New Market? I don’t know because I don’t know anything about this teacher. I do know that some of the girls in the class were uncomfortable with the sexual content. I know that the teacher indicated that she would fast forward through the explicit content, but I also know that when you fast forward through a graphic sex scene, you are still exposed to the content.
Why is it ok to bring material rated for an adult into the classroom? When did it become acceptable to sexualize children?
If you need a permission slip to show the video, that should tell the teacher, it shouldn’t be shown.
New Hampshire law that addresses obscene material can be found here. One might conclude after reading the description of the video shown to the children that it contains soft pornography. Does this “R” rated video rise to the level of obscenity under New Hampshire Law?
That’s a question for a judge.
One thing’s for sure, this doesn’t help public schools thrive. Parents do not object to materials that teach their children about honesty, courage, or integrity, in English class. No one attends school board meetings to object to poems or books that build character or provide an opportunity to expand a student’s vocabulary.
Instead of focusing on academic content that elevates literacy or even good character in children, parents are now faced with questioning the depravity, obscenity, and soft pornography.
Finally, this video was shown in a Sophomore English class. A class that should be teaching students something like this:
1) Grammar Skills
2)Exposition and Composition Skills
3) Debate Skills
4) Research Skills
5) Rhetorical Skills
6) Logic Skills
Not only is all of this inappropriate for students, it denies your child academic content that could help them get into a selective college. How? When graduating students apply for college, they have to write essays. Children who attend private schools where they are assigned classical literature expand their vocabulary which can help them on their college essays. It’s how some high school graduates are selected, and how some are denied admissions at some of our top colleges.
If teachers are dumbing down your child’s public education, they are also denying your child amazing opportunities. Your child may be denied admittance to a top college, or worse, you find out the teacher was a predator. Either way, children in public schools deserve better than this.
