Pat Dollard

Tweet

Fox Radio:

A proposed plan to teach kindergartners sex education has come under fire in Helena, Montana.

The Helena Public School system is considering a comprehensive plan for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It includes teaching first graders that people can be attracted to the same gender. In second grade students are instructed to avoid gay slurs and by the time students turn 10 years old they are taught about various types of intercourse.

According to the draft proposal obtained by FOX News Radio, fifth graders should “understand that sexual intercourse includes but is not limited to vaginal, oral, or anal penetration.”

Jeff Laszloffy, of the Montana Family Foundation, is among those outraged that educators want to teach sex education to kindergarteners.

“It’s absolutely insane,” Laszloffy told FOX News Radio. “This is not education. This has crossed the line and has gone from education to indoctrination and that’s the problem parents have.”

“This is not the reason we send our kids to school – to be indoctrinated on different sex positions,” he said. “These types of conservations should be had between parents and their children at the appropriate time and we don’t think it’s the state’s job to determine when that time is.”

School superintendent Bruce Messinger told FOX News Radio that parents have fair questions about the content of the plan.

“This is by design a formative process,” he said, noting that the section about human sexuality has drawn the most attention.

He said educators are looking at the age-appropriateness of the material and said final decisions won’t be made until August.

“There will be plenty of time for public comment,” he said. Messinger said they are working through how the content would be taught and how the curriculum would be presented to students.

He said the school system stresses parental involvement and said that anyone with objections to classroom material has the option of pulling their child out of the class.

“We honor that,” he said.

Messinger defended teaching sex education in grade school based on national data that he said indicates a growing number of 10, 11, and 12-year-olds becoming sexually active.

Have an opt-out program. Sometimes we create alternative activities for the students.

“It’s an unfortunate occurrence,” he said.

Laszloffy said the bottom line is that the program puts government between parents and their children.

“It tramples parental rights and we think those rights need to be upheld,” he said.

A final vote on the proposal is expected in August.