Word comes from a middle school in New York that anti-bullying campaigns in the nation’s schools are being used to promote the homosexual agenda. At Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, New York, (near Poughkeepsie) students from nearby Bard College were brought in to lead anti-bullying workshops. The workshops, instead, focused on homosexuality and gender identity. The students (divided by gender) were required to participate in exercises that made them uncomfortable, to use words unique to the promotion of homosexual/lesbian activity, and to participate in the workshop without parental knowledge or the opportunity to opt out.
When the 13- and 14-year-olds told their parents about the activities, parents were outraged. Not only were the young students taught that sexual activity was normal and encouraged (in spite of the wealth of social science data showing the harmful effects of early sexual activity), but both the girls’ session and the boys’ session included offensive, immoral teaching and activities. The students were taught when to use words like “pansexual” and “genderqueer.” Christian News reported that parents complained about the school “overstepping its bounds in not notifying parents first and giving us the choice.” Parents complained about the session being “inappropriate,” with such instruction “best left up to the parents.”
In the girls’ session, two girls were picked to stand at the front of the class and pretend that they were dating lesbians. Others were required to ask another girl for a kiss. In the boys’ session, the students were advised to “keep a condom in their pocket at all times.” They were also taught (ironically in this age, where the use of the word “slut” can get someone in hot water very quickly), “how to identify a woman who is a ‘slut.’”
In the face of overwhelming parental objections, both the school principal and the district superintendent defended the workshops and told parents that more of such workshops will be scheduled in the future.
A news report in The Poughkeepsie Journal quoted Superintendent Paul Finch as saying that the presentation was “focused on improving culture, relationships, communication and self-perceptions.” He noted that they “might be required” to notify parents in the future, but that the “Dignity for All Students Act” means that schools are required to hold sessions like the one drawing criticism.
The school superintendent also admitted that school guidance counselors and the school principal worked with the college students in planning the workshops. Further, the school officials claimed that the sessions were designed to teach the students about “respect and safety.”
The Red Hook parents remain justifiably irate and livid over the sessions and the disregard for their parental rights. Parents in the rest of the nation need to be just as irate and livid because these types of indoctrination programs — without parental knowledge or consent — are headed to all our schools under the guise of anti-bullying efforts.