Who Says the Sun Always Sets in the West? (original) (raw)
Family Leader
We all know the west is the land of the setting sun . . . or is it? When it comes to the rights of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children, the sun is definitely rising in the west. In Arizona, a new law reasserting parents’ supremacy over the state in regards to their children is set to take effect on Thursday.
Senate Bill 1309, the “Parents’ Bill of Rights Act” requires, among other things, parental consent (op-in) before a child can receive any sexual education in school. It confirms the of right of parents to review all test results and receive report cards, it requires parental consent for children to get mental-health treatment at school except in emergency situations, and it requires procedures to be established by which parents may learn the source of any supplemental educational materials and the nature and purpose of clubs or activities that have been approved by the school.
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of this legislation is the “opt-in” instead of “opt-out” requirement for sex-ed classes. In this, Arizona joins only two other states, Nevada and Utah, in recognizing the primary right of parents to initiate the moral upbringing of their children. This is not the case with the widespread practice of the “opt-out” sex-ed curriculums, which hand this control over to government agencies and the wizards behind the curtain who provide the content. The very nature of the “opt-out” system means that by default every child will receive this instruction. If you chose to pull your child out, often there can be both social and academic ramifications—or should I say punishments—that your child is exposed to, including writing reports and ridicule from peers. As one mother said to me, “Let’s face it, kids usually do what’s easiest and they frankly make it easier to participate than not.” Would your child rather passively listen to a lecture, or be pounding away in the library writing a report.
For far too long sex-ed content providers, Planned Parenthood, Advocates for Youth, and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), have used the power of the government to usurp the prerogative of parents to bring up their child in the manner they see fit. They have sought to socially reengineer society and sexualize minor children via sex-ed classes that all too often discuss topics too graphic and vulgar to be quoted in the newspaper. Planned Parenthood, for example, was behind the recently proposed sex-ed curriculum in Montana that would teach homosexuality to first graders and sex positions to ten year olds.
Critics the Arizona law argue that it will lead to greater numbers of teen pregnancy and STD transmission in a state that already has one of the highest rates in the nation. They attribute this higher rate to the Arizona law already on the books, which leaves it up to schools whether to teach sex-ed at all as well as the requirement to teach abstinence in conjunction with it. However, this argument falls apart when you account for the fact that there is a higher proportion of Hispanic teens in Arizona compared to other states, and their pregnancy rate is four times that of their white peers. This indicates that culture is a strong factor in legitimizing teen pregnancy. Additionally, the number of teen immigrants from high-fertility countries has increased. And finally, because Arizona has a higher proportion of illegal teen immigrants, the overall pregnancy rate is artificially high due to the fact that the total population is under reported in the census which is used to calculate the rate.
We applaud these western states for recognizing and codifying parents’ rights and encourage you to seek similar laws in your state (you can find Arizona’s law below). It is time to reframe the argument and put the power back into the hands of parents. Yes, it may just be the dawning of brighter day for parents!
Read Arizona’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights” here: