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Sunday, November 06, 2005
Kathleen Parker :: Townhall.com Columnist
Parents take another hit in the culture wars
by Kathleen Parker
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Parents increasingly at war against a culture they find aggressively sexualized just lost another battle. This time against the local school board.

In a recent ruling, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (that be the Left Coast) determined that parents do not have a fundamental right to control when, where and how their children are taught about sex.

Rather the state - in its far greater wisdom about what's right and wrong - has ultimate power over your kids.

This is not a new battle, of course. Parents and school boards have argued for years about sex education. But this decision is especially offensive because the children involved are so young.

The ruling stems from a case filed by a group of California parents whose elementary school children were given a questionnaire of dubious content. In their complaint, the parents said they would not have allowed their children to participate in the survey had they known of the sexual nature of some of the questions.

Kids ages 7 through 10 were asked, for example, to rate the following activities according to how often they experienced the thought or emotion:

- "Touching my private parts too much."

- "Thinking about having sex"

- "Thinking about touching other people's private parts."

- "Thinking about sex when I don't want to."

- "Washing myself because I feel dirty on the inside."

- "Not trusting people because they might want sex."

- "Getting scared or upset when I think about sex."

- "Having sex feelings in my body."

- "Can't stop thinking about sex."

- "Getting upset when people talk about sex."

Obviously, not every 7-year-old is ready to contemplate those kinds of questions. If you're a parent, there's no contest as to who should determine when such subjects are raised. Parents should.

Not so fast, and not according to the 9th Circuit. Continued...

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About The Author
Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.
 
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