Representative McDermott releases reviews of current sex ed curricula options

Of the six available options for teaching sex education to middle school students, McDermott finds only one acceptable.

News Release from Office of Rep Bob McDermott

Honolulu – August 13, 2015 – Today Representative Bob McDermott (HD40 Ewa Beach) released his McDermott Report #4 on controversial sex education materials in use today in Hawaii’s public middle schools.

McDermott’s staff reviewed course materials for six different programs including HealthTeacher, Making a Difference!, Draw the Line, Respect the Line, and Family Life and Sexual Health (F.L.A.S.H.). Pono Choices, which is actually not an approved curricula, but a “research” project, was covered extensively in previous reports.

McDermott also underscored the fact that the Department of Education keeps no records of which programs are used in which schools.

“That’s why we’re providing this report as a guide for parents to evaluate various sex ed curriculums,” said McDermott. “The parents really have to keep track of what materials are being put in front of their children, because the D.O.E. doesn’t seem to know.”

Health Teacher, the one sex ed course that McDermott found acceptable was written in 1999 and is the oldest.

“It’s no coincidence that the older program is free from most of the ‘political correctness’ and social engineering that creeps into later versions,” added McDermott. “Some of the courses contain outright endorsements of the LGBT lifestyle. We have moved beyond tolerance and into forced affirmation.”

McDermott also cited specific medical inaccuracies and the deliberate misrepresentation of the actual risks of aberrant sexual behaviors.

He also pointed out what he called a deliberate attempt to undermine the parent/child relationship.

“We see many examples where the D.O.E. tries, through some of these programs, to usurp the parents authority on moral issues, thereby creating a cultural conflict in the home,” said McDermott. They try to offset what the parents are trying to impart to their own children and that is just plain wrong.”

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PDF: McDermott Report IV