Planned Parenthood Denies Lawmakers’ Request to See Its Graphic Sex Ed Curriculum

by Rita Diller, LifeNews.com, January 15, 2014

As Planned Parenthood’s noxious sex education rockets across the country at unprecedented rates—propelled by millions of dollars in Obamacare PREP grants—those who bear great responsibility for the oversight of children’s education are being denied the opportunity to know what their children will be taught in these taxpayer-funded programs.

When parents in Hawaii became concerned about a sex education program being “tested” on children across the islands, they called on American Life League’s Stop Planned Parenthood project to help fight the program and uncover the contents of the curriculum.

We always recommend involving state legislators who are concerned with protecting children from indecent materials, and parents in Hawaii did just that.

The result is described in a Honolulu newspaper headline proclaiming that a Hawaii legislator is “steamed” over the sex ed program. And for good reason.

After parents told state representative Bob McDermott about Pono Choices—the program that teaches middle school students about same sex relationships and oral and anal sex—McDermott attempted to get copies of the entire curriculum from the state department of education, but incredibly, his request was denied. He then approached the University of Hawaii, which received, in partnership with Planned Parenthood, almost a million dollars in a teen pregnancy prevention grant to develop and implement the program. The state legislator was once again turned down. He was instead invited to review the curriculum under supervision, which he declined.

Why was this elected representative of the people of Hawaii not given an opportunity to have possession of the curriculum and all materials that would be used in conjunction with it? Donalyn Dela Cruz, a DOE spokeswoman, told reporters that “the curriculum is sensitive in nature and can be misinterpreted.”

The Star-Advertiser quotes McDermott’s comments given to reporters at the state capitol. “It is outrageous that a state legislator . . . as an elected official and a father of public school children, cannot get this information,” McDermott said.

Representative McDermott was not the only legislator denied the materials. Senator Sam Slom received the same treatment and expressed his concern at a December 18 press conference. A video of Senator Slom’s remarks is available on the Hawaii Free Press website.

Senator Slom indicated during the press conference that he pursued the curriculum after receiving complaints and concerns from a broad range of parents, as well as teachers who, he points out, were very disturbed. Slom said his efforts at obtaining the curriculum were independent from Representative McDermott’s, but both hit the same roadblocks and came to the same conclusions. “A government that hides public information is antithetical to democracy,” Senator Slom said.

He pointed to the total lack of transparency regarding the curriculum. He tied the lack of transparency to ongoing requests for information to the state’s attorney general regarding the secret investigation of sexual assault, rape, and violence against children at the state school for deaf and blind that is alleged to have occurred over a five-year period. Repeated requests for information from that secret investigation have been denied as well. It is interesting to note that the curriculum Pono Choices was developed at the University of Hawaii Center on Disabilities Studies.

“This program,” Senator Slom said, “is a cookie cutter program that is referred to on the mainland as ‘Proud Choices.’ I don’t think it’s proud on the mainland, and I don’t think it’s pono here.” He said that denying him direct access to the curriculum impedes his ability to represent the people who elected him. He pledged to look at other avenues of obtaining the information.

When asked by a reporter whether he would be willing to sit down with DOE and UH representatives to go over the curriculum, Senator Slom reiterated that he would do so if he were first provided the curriculum—a request that was denied.

“We made a simple request,” he said. And he continued:

Show us the materials first. Then we can sit down and talk. But to treat us like children and treat us with disrespect . . . I think is going to have far-reaching consequences. Budget hearings are starting in a few moments. The University of Hawaii is going to be once again investigated by the senate Friday, and I can tell you when the DOE and UH come before Ways and Means seeking more money, I will have questions for them, as well.

A press release from Senator Slom announcing the press conference says, in part:

The DOE halted the controversial sex education program on November 29 to “investigate.” The program is aimed at 11, 12, and 13-year-old students teaching graphic information that includes teaching children to put condoms on wooden dildos and pro-homosexual behavior.

In the fastest “investigation” in Hawaii history, two weeks, the DOE announced the program will restart. The program will also be expanded to 30 more schools because the DOE “affirmed that the curriculum meets department standards, and also showed that Pono Choices is a culturally responsive curriculum that has resulted in positive outcomes for students,” said Leila Hayashida, assistant superintendent for the Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Support.

Tell that to the parents.

[Representative Bob] McDermott and I separately requested copies of the Pono Choices curriculum. Both requests were denied. This is taxpayer money. We are taxpayer representatives. This program, and the DOE, is neither pono, nor provides parental choices.

STOPP research in early September established the connection between Pono Choices and Making Proud Choices. We found that Making Proud Choices, a curriculum about which much disconcerting information is available, was listed as a “key consultant” to Pono Choices. A recent exposé in the Hawaii Free Press points to our research in showing the extent of the depravity of Pono Choices.

Hawaii is not the only state where elected officials are being denied access to such curriculum. In Statesville, North Carolina, the school district received a $4 million Tier 1 Teen Pregnancy Prevention grant from the federal government for after-school programs with Making Proud Choices and Be Proud Be Responsible. A school board member there is working to expose and stop the imminent implementation of Making Proud Choices for ninth graders throughout the district. On December 9, he requested a copy of the entire curriculum and materials that will be used to teach the children, and as of December 30 the requested materials had still not been received.

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LifeNews.com Note: Rita Diller is the national director of American Life League’s Stop Planned Parenthood Project.