27 August 2012

Schools Informed Of Agenda of Sex Ed Groups

Family First NZ has sent a DVD presentation entitled “YOU’RE TEACHING MY CHILD WHAT? Sex Education: A Psychiatrist Calls Foul” to every school principal and every Board of Trustees in New Zealand, highlighting the dangers of Family Planning and Rainbow Youth’s sex education programmes, resources and websites which fail to tell the full facts and which compromise the concerns and wishes of parents, and the safety of young people. The presenter, Miriam Grossman, M.D., is a US-based board certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist.

“Dr. Grossman's mission is to highlight the dangers of the anything-goes, condom-based approach to sexual health. With examples from cutting edge research, she proves that sex is a serious matter, and can never be ‘casual’, especially for girls. In the DVD, she also reports on her examination of NZ-based educational resources and websites hosted by groups such as Family Planning, Rainbow Youth and others – many funded by the government, available to schools, and targeted at students,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

Family First is especially concerned about websites such as curious.org.nz, theword.org.nz, getiton.co.nz and a number of Family Planning pamphlets. Interestingly, the curious.org.nz website has been offline since Dr Grossman’s visit.

“The current approach in NZ sows confusion about right and wrong and says the moral absolute is – use condoms. The government should fund evidence-based education resources which are approved by parents rather than saying one thing to parents and another to their children. Family Planning receives more than $11m from the government of which $2.6m is for education,” says Mr McCoskrie.

A survey of parents in 2010 found that three out of four parents of young children want the abstinence message taught in sex education – with 69% of kiwis overall supporting the ‘wait’ message.

“Judging by the current approach’s results – which is a good place to start - sex education has been an utter failure. New Zealand has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the OECD, our STD rates are out of control, and the number of teenage girls having abortions is tragically high.”

“Groups like the Family Planning Association and the AIDS Foundation are perpetuating the myth that as long as you use a condom, you can pretty well do what you like in terms of promiscuity, experimentation, and fringe behaviours – with little or no information on the physical or emotional ramifications or prevention of disease.”

Family First NZ is calling for the government to withdraw funding of Family Planning and Rainbow Youth’s sex education programmes, resources and websites.

Some of the material highlighted by Dr Grossman can be seen here: http://familyfirst.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Slides.ppt (Warning - contains offensive material)

ENDS

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