Thank you again to everyone who showed up for the November school board meeting. If you missed it, click on the link on the right titled “School Board Meeting Synopsis”. The school board certainly heard from the community, both in the large number of people who showed up and in the words of the people who spoke. So now what?
We’re not done yet. In the communications from people who have been in contact with the district administration it seems the district is still not doing anything with this. They think that if we simply communicate about it that is sufficient. It’s not sufficient at all. Planned Parenthood needs to be removed in our schools. If they are not, it is only a matter of time before the process of creeping incrementalism extends their presence more and more into the lives of our children. We need to send a consistent message that Planned Parenthood is America’s largest abortion provider, not a community service organization. As Jason S. said at the meeting, the program is simply a marketing campaign for Planned Parenthood. Everything the district administration has said in response to this has contained an element of falsehood. We need to respond to this consistently, and so it’s laid out below.
- “The district says students must opt into the program.” Really? Perhaps they must opt into the after school component, but they don’t opt into the class. The class is mandatory and the contract with Planned Parenthood specifies that the district will make students available to Planned Parenthood. One of the speakers at the November school board meeting indicated that their child was in the class and they objected to it. They certainly didn’t opt into be taught by Planned Parenthood. Regardless of whether students opt in, the fact that Planned Parenthood is being presented as a community service organization is not something that any student has opted into. Rather, this has been thrust upon all of the students and hides the fact that Planned Parenthood kills babies and promotes teen sex.
- “Planned Parenthood only comes into the room a couple of times per week and doesn’t do a lot of actual sex education.” So what? Coming into the classroom once is unacceptable. It doesn’t change the fact that they are coming into the classroom and being presented as a nice resource for our children. Furthermore, they are coming into the classroom the entire academic year so that our students have an entire school year’s worth of exposure to them. That’s not a mitigating factor at all. It’s an attempt by the administration to minimize what’s going on. People only minimize something in that manner when they know it’s wrong and they are hoping to get away with it.
- “They do community service.” And the KKK has adopted roads for litter pick up. Outlaw motorcycle gangs have tried to clean up their image by participating in parades and toy drives. Criminals are sometimes sentenced to do community service. That does nothing to change the fact that Planned Parenthood hooks kids on sex and kills babies. Doing something good does not negate the fact that they are also doing something horrible. This is another attempt by the administration to minimize Planned Parenthood’s presence. People only minimize things when they already know they are wrong.
- “One of the people brought in by Planned Parenthood is a retired teacher, and the other is a social worker.” Again, this is an attempt at minimizing what is going on. This does nothing to change the fact that Planned Parenthood was brought in and given access to our children. It’s no more relevant than the fact that some Planned Parenthood employees used to flip burgers at McDonald’s prior to working for Planned Parenthood. They are attempting to draw our attention away from the fact that they are Planned Parenthood employees. They were hired by Planned Parenthood, directed by Planned Parenthood, and are paid by Planned Parenthood. They are personal representatives of Planned Parenthood regardless of what they did in another job.
- “Planned Parenthood got a grant and brought it to the school district.” So what? It doesn’t matter that Planned Parenthood obtained financing to market their brand in our schools. They are still marketing their brand in our schools and this is unacceptable.
- “Planned Parenthood is a hot topic, and some people are opposed and some are in favor.” Well that’s just dandy. If Planned Parenthood supporters want their kids to be exposed to Planned Parenthood then they should take their kids over there themselves. Why are they being forced on everyone else? The fact of the matter is that Planned Parenthood supporters do not have their rights as parents violated if we kick Planned Parenthood out of the schools because they can still take their kids there. But those who oppose Planned Parenthood do have their rights as parents violated because we can’t undo the exposure all students in the schools have when Planned Parenthood is presented as a community service organization rather than a promoter of teen sexual behavior and leading abortion advocate and provider.
- “We’re making too big of a deal out of this.” In other words the district administration still isn’t taking us seriously. They think it’s perfectly acceptable to offend and alienate a very large segment of the population because they don’t share our concerns. This is perhaps the worst sort of minimization the district administration has done regarding this issue. They are saying we are the problem. Since when has it been a problem for parents to speak up about what’s doing on in our schools? Has it ever been a problem for us to be concerned about our students? When parents read from the Planned Parenthood website things that would result in a sexual harassment lawsuit if presented in a workplace setting, and one of the school board directors is okay with it being presented as a resource for our children, who is really the problem? When parents read intrusive sexual questions from a survey presented in class that would result in the police being called if a strange man were asking these questions on the sidewalk outside of a school, is the parent the problem? No! Planned Parenthood teaching in our schools is the problem!
This is how we need to respond to the district when they attempt to minimize our concerns. We need to be firm and polite about it, but we need to keep up the pressure. Continue to show up for school board meetings, and continue to contact the school board and school administration.
