Action Alert: Sex Ed Bill

HB 393 by Representative Pat Smith was heard in the House Education committee on Tuesday May 13th.  It passed favorably with a vote of 7-6.  This bill will allow the State Department of Education to survey our kids on risk behaviors, including questions about sexual behavior and experiences.  

You can read the bill here:

http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=875669&n=HB393%20Original

Louisiana kids currently take this survey, but by Louisiana law the 9 survey questions having to do with sexual behavior are not included.  If this bill becomes law, that will change.

You can view the full CDC survey here:

Middle School:

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/pdf/questionnaire/2013_ms_questionnaire.pdf

High School:

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/pdf/questionnaire/2013_xxh_questionnaire.pdf

Proponents of this bill say that if Louisiana continues to NOT allow our students to be surveyed on the sexual behavior portion of the survey, researchers can not come to Louisiana and help us solve our problems with regards to kids and sex.

We do not agree!  This bill needs to be killed on the house floor.  Please email all of the reps and tell them to vote NO on HB393.

UPDATE:  HB369 was KILLED in committee today!  

HB369, also by Representative Smith will be heard on WEDNESDAY May 14th.  We need to try to kill this bill in committee.  This bill seeks to REQUIRE, not just authorize sex ed in public schools.  Current law authorizes schools to teach sex ed in grades seven and above, and is limited to scientific information only.

Proposed law would require public schools to provide instruction in sex education EACH YEAR to students.  Why the change from “starting in grade seven” to “each year”?  What does that mean?  Each year, as in kindergarten thru 12?

The law would require that the information include:

• Information about human sexuality as a normal and healthy aspect of human development.

• Information which helps students develop skills necessary to form healthy, age appropriate relationships.

This is not the JOB of the schools!  This is a parent's job.  It is a parental right to instill morals and values into our children.  You can not legislate the morality that any given family chooses to instill.  This bill will further remove our ability to parent, instead once again placing that task into the hands of our educational system.

Present law requires approval of materials to be used by the school board AND a parental review committee.  Proposed law requires public school governing authorities (BESE) to make sex education materials available to parents.

You can (and should) read the bill here:

http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=875067&n=HB369%20Original

Last fall when all these crazy mamas (I am a proud member of that group) started researching and digging up stuff on common core, we came across this:

The National Sexuality Education Standards

Core Content and Skills K-12. 

http://www.futureofsexed.org/documents/josh-fose-standards-web.pdf

(just to be especially clear, K does stand for kindergarten)

These standards call for things such as second graders using proper terms to identify body parts.  Fifth graders would have to define sexual orientation as the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender. 

This next document comes from the same people:
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwche/Sex%20ed%20class/guidelines.pdf

In this document, here are some Level One (middle childhood, ages 5 through 8; early elementary school) concepts:

• Teaches that both boys and girls have body parts that feel good when touched.
• Touching and rubbing one’s own genitals to feel good is called masturbation.
• Vaginal intercourse – when a penis is placed inside a vagina – is the most common way for a sperm and egg to join.
• Some people are homosexual, which means they can be attracted to and fall in love with someone of the same gender.

On the National Guidelines Task Force, you will find a strong presence of groups like Planned Parenthood.  

Of course us mamas were on top of this right away, but most everyone else blew this off as something that we would maybe worry about in the distant future.  I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to clearly see that this bill opens the door to those standards.  This is not in the distant future…this could be NEXT school year if this bill passes!  

This bill is bad news. We need to KILL THIS BILL!  That is done by emailing, calling, using Facebook and Twitter to contact the representatives and telling them to KILL HB369.

Email block for House Education Committee:

bishopw@legis.la.gov, broadwaterc@legis.la.gov, burnsh@legis.la.gov, carmodyt@legis.la.gov, carters@legis.la.gov, champags@legis.la.gov, edwardsj@legis.la.gov, henryc@legis.la.gov, hollisp@legis.la.gov, iveyb@legis.la.gov, jeffersonpo@legis.la.gov, larep036@legis.la.gov, landryn@legis.la.gov, legerw@legis.la.gov, pricee@legis.la.gov, reynoldsg@legis.la.gov, richardj@legis.la.gov, shadoinr@legis.la.gov, smithp@legis.la.gov, thompsonj@legis.la.gov, williamsa@legis.la.gov

Here is an email block that you can copy/paste for a QUICK email to every rep:

abramson@legis.la.gov; adamsb@legis.la.gov; larep021@legis.la.gov; armesj@legis.la.gov; 
larep102@legis.la.gov; larep100@legis.la.gov; barrast@legis.la.gov; larep029@legis.la.gov; 
berthelotj@legis.la.gov; billiotr@legis.la.gov; bishops@legis.la.gov; bishopw@legis.la.gov; 
broadwaterc@legis.la.gov; brossettj@legis.la.gov; browntr@legis.la.gov; burfordr@legis.la.gov; 
burnsh@legis.la.gov; larep089@legis.la.gov; larep002@legis.la.gov; carmodyt@legis.la.gov; 
carters@legis.la.gov; champags@legis.la.gov; chaneyb@legis.la.gov; connickp@legis.la.gov; coxk@legis.la.gov; cromerg@legis.la.gov; danahaym@legis.la.gov; dixonh@legis.la.gov; larep052@legis.la.gov; edwardsj@legis.la.gov; larep013@legis.la.gov; foilf@legis.la.gov; franklina@legis.la.gov; gainesr@legis.la.gov; garofalor@legis.la.gov; larep035@legis.la.gov; gisclairj@legis.la.gov; larep066@legis.la.gov; larep041@legis.la.gov; guinnj@legis.la.gov; harrisl@legis.la.gov; harrisoj@legis.la.gov; havardk@legis.la.gov; hazelc@legis.la.gov; henryc@legis.la.gov; hensgensb@legis.la.gov; hilld@legis.la.gov;  hodgesv@legis.la.gov; 
hoffmanf@legis.la.gov; hollisp@legis.la.gov; honored@legis.la.gov; howardf@legis.la.gov; 
hunterm@legis.la.gov; huvalm@legis.la.gov; iveyb@legis.la.gov; jacksonk@legis.la.gov; 
james.ted@legis.la.gov; jeffersonpo@legis.la.gov; johnsoro@legis.la.gov; joness@legis.la.gov; 
larep036@legis.la.gov; larep059@legis.la.gov; landryn@legis.la.gov; landryt@legis.la.gov
lebasb@legis.la.gov; legerw@legis.la.gov; leopoldc@legis.la.gov; lopintoj@legis.la.gov; larep094@legis.la.gov; macks@legis.la.gov; millerg@legis.la.gov; montoucj@legis.la.gov; morenoh@legis.la.gov; larep001@legis.la.gov; morrisjc@legis.la.gov; nortonb@legis.la.gov; ortegos@legis.la.gov; pearsonk@legis.la.gov; pierrev@legis.la.gov; pontie@legis.la.gov; poper@legis.la.gov; pricee@legis.la.gov; pughs@legis.la.gov; pylants@legis.la.gov; reynoldsg@legis.la.gov; richardj@legis.la.gov; larep075@legis.la.gov; larep045@legis.la.gov; schexnayderc@legis.la.gov; schrodej@legis.la.gov; seabaugha@legis.la.gov; shadoinr@legis.la.gov; simons@legis.la.gov; smithp@legis.la.gov; larep060@legis.la.gov;  stokesj@legis.la.gov; talbotk@legis.la.gov; thibautm@legis.la.gov; thierryl@legis.la.gov; thompsonj@legis.la.gov; whitneyl@legis.la.gov; williamsa@legis.la.gov; larep004@legis.la.gov; willmott@legis.la.gov; woodruffe@legis.la.gov