Sex and the Cafeteria: Teaching Middle-Schoolers How to Have Good Sex
Posted on May 29, 2008
Wow, things have sure changed since I went to school.
Middle-schoolers at Fort Herriman Middle School in Utah had a, well, interesting lesson plan waiting for them which made their parents furious. They were taught all about sex! Europe, here we come…
A middle school health teacher is under investigation, accused of teaching too much about sex.
Parents say the teacher is saying crude and explicit things that don’t belong in the classroom. Dewayne Smith says, “These are our children, and we’re not going to breach the firewall of innocence.”
Parents say sex education went too far inside the classroom full of 8th-graders at Fort Herriman Middle School. Suzanne Johnson told us, “She explained how the teacher talked about masturbation. Girl masturbation, boys, the wrong ways … the right ways to have sex, the wrong ways to have sex. How long to make it last. I mean, disgusting.”
“What bothered me is that, not only did we get into discussions of masturbatory activity, but we got into explicit descriptions of homosexual acts,” Smith said.
Parents say the teacher also showed students fliers with explicit cartoon images.
Seventh-grader Marissa Poloei had a friend in the class. She told us, “He thought it was gross and stuff, and she showed a lot of pictures of stuff.”
A spokesperson for the Jordan School District would not comment on the allegations but said there is an investigation. The teacher has been put on administrative leave, but parents don’t think that’s enough.
Johnson says, “We want her fired. We want her never to teach ever again.”
Some of the parents plan to meet with administrators at the school tomorrow. They’ve invited Rep. Carl Wimmer to attend.
Again, the district said it cannot comment on personnel issues. We were not able to contact the teacher for her side of the story.
Kinda reminds me of this ad I used to remember seeing for Sex and the City, except it was the four women when they were middle-schoolers. I couldn’t find it on YouTube, but it was basically Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha as adolescent girls, already gossiping together and already in their cliched roles.
Is that what this teacher was trying to do? Is that what this class was supposed to be? I can just see this being the newest show on MTV: Sex and the Cafeteria. How to have good sex when you’ve just hit puberty and can barely get it up or really understand what it is you’re doing.
The parents have every right to be outraged, and that teacher — if everything the parents are saying is accurate, and I don’t doubt that it is — should be fired. And let me just say this: unlike a lot of conservatives, I actually don’t have a problem with some sexual education. In my high school, we were required to take it (I had it around my junior year). But it was absolutely nothing like what this teacher is teaching. If anything, sex ed was really a huge scare tactic. We were taught in terrifying detail about what different kinds of STDs there are, and what exactly they would do to you. We were taught about what different kinds of birth control were out there, how they worked, what the potential risks to your body were, and how effective they were. Always the teacher stressed that the best way to keep yourself free from STDs and to not get pregnant was to remain abstinent, because even using a condom and birth control was not always foolproof. Best of all, we were told about the emotional and psychological effect having sex when you aren’t ready (read: TOO YOUNG) could be, and how devastating it can be. Like I said, that class scared the bejesus out of me. I lived in fear that if I had sex, I would get pregnant, contract syphillis, and be depressed all at the same time. That class never once said that abstinence was the best answer — it stressed personal choice — but it covered every possible base that there was when it came to possible consequences. The attitude was that if you’re going to do it, you need to be prepared for the risk you’re taking.
And you know, I don’t really have a problem with a program like that — for high-schoolers. I thought it was age-appropriate and made perfect sense. In fifth grade, my sex-ed class consisted of splitting the boys and girls into two different classes. I have no idea what the boys were taught, but we were basically told what would be happening soon, and mainly centered around what our monthly visits from Aunt Flo would be like. Again, no arguments from me here.
But this? Explaining to children how to have sex well, how to make it last longer, how to masturbate, what different kinds of homosexual acts you can practice… that’s just outrageous. The fact that children are being taught these kinds of things says a lot about where we are as a society today. Children are no longer allowed to be children. They’re being asked to grow up and handle adult decisions at earlier and earlier ages, while their parents and teachers either look the other way or encourage them. These are children. Let them enjoy their childhood and innocence and naivete and idealism while they can. They don’t need to be informed about the many different kinds of sexuality that exist and then encouraged to go out and practice. That’ll lead them down a dark, lonely road which will inevitably lead to a lot of anger, cynicism, and bitterness.
I seriously wonder why it is that so many adults seem to want to rush children into adulthood. I really just don’t understand it. Yesterday I asked if they were just living vicariously. I really do think that excuse is grasping at some pretty frail straws, but this entire debacle about teaching kids to have sex boggles my mind, just like dressing your sixteen-or-under little girl like a porn star boggles my mind.
Really, with this case, one of the parents summed it up best:
These are our children, and we’re not going to breach the firewall of innocence.
Glad to see that there are still some parents out there that understand that.
Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin
» Filed Under Education, Homosexual Agenda, News
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13 Responses to “Sex and the Cafeteria: Teaching Middle-Schoolers How to Have Good Sex”
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This is the kind of stuff that will end up making me blow a gasket. Thanks for informing us Cassy, and welcome to the team.
Unfortunately, if you wait until high school to teach sex ed, the kids have already learned all the wrong things from other kids whose parents aren’t as diligent about what they see, hear and do.
I’ve always been open with my kids and have had to explain some pretty explicit stuff starting around 5/6 grade. Cutting, oral sex, you name it. My daughter had a girl in her 8th grade class who had twins and has a girl in her high school choir who had a baby last summer and got married a couple of months ago.
Unless you home school your kids and keep them pretty sheltered, they’re going to hear about it anyway. The best thing is to be open with them so they know they can ask you anything without embarrassment. That way, you get to correct the misconceptions they get from other kids and emphasize all the reasons they don’t want to do those things until they grow up.
That is your judgement as a parent Lorraine, but this teacher obviously crossed the line. Where that line is should be common sense, so obviously this teacher had none and therefore no business teaching such a sensitive topic.
no better we should teach them about guns, gua school environment than a bar.ns, and more guns….they will pick up all this sex talk sooner or later, better in
what’s with your blog —it mixed up all my sentences
Jay,
I think its hard to decide where the line is. Here in the southwest I can’t tell you how many 12 and 13 year olds I have attended to who were pregnant. And 25 relatives were in the waiting room happy that a 13 year old was having a baby. I can’t tell you how many 13 and 14 year olds I have seen having their 2nd and 3rd child. This is a serious cultural problem. I don’t know what the solution is but witholding sex education until the parents decide it is time is not the solution for this particular society in the southwest.
You’re all a bunch of hypocrites. At their age, you would have loved to hear all the naughty details about sex, admit it.
Boy the Peace & Love generation created shows like Sex in The City…now you’re crying…buy your kids a gun, that will make you feel better
“witholding sex education until the parents decide it is time is not the solution for this particular society in the southwest.”
The parents should be the sole arbiters.
When parents WERE the decision-makers, the incicents you cite were very rare.
It almost sounds like you are suggesting that the state assume control of the upbringing of children. Do you know what a society that takes children away from parents “for their own good” and for “education” is called?
(BTW - I need to throw the BS flag on what you have written. There are very few 13 and 14-year-olds having their 2nd and 3rd children anywhere, including the Southwest, where I also live. I’m not saying that it hasn’t happened, but it certainly couldn’t have happened where you live more times than you can count.)
kakemeun,
Of course we would have liked to hear these details back in 6th grade. Then we grew up and matured.
Time for you to do so, too.
On the other hand, I know of a teacher who was reprimanded by a school administrator because, when asked by an impertinent student if a certain practice would prevent pregnancy, responded that the only thing that is 100% effective in doing so is saying NO.
I am an eight grader at this school, and I’d just like to say it was EXTREMELY uncomfortable, and I felt like it was unneccesary for me to know half of the things she taught.
Teachers have changed over the years. Do parents have a say in anything anymore?
See what I mean at http://www.teachercrime.com
If “Uncle Joe” came into your bedroom and talked to you about these things he could possibly be charged with a sex offender crime. That’s what this teacher needs to be charged with. It is no different just because she has a degree and has the four walls of a public school around her.