Last month a district attorney in rural Juneau County (Wisconsin) ordered schools to abandon their sex education courses, saying a new curriculum law could lead to criminal charges against teachers for contributing to the delinquency of minors.
Starting in the fall, the new law requires schools that have sex education programs to tell students how to use condoms and other contraceptives. Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth said such education encourages sex among children, which is illegal, and could lead to charges against teachers.
The new law "promotes the sexualization - and sexual assault - of our children," Southworth wrote in a March 24 letter to officials in five school districts. He urged the districts to suspend their sex education programs and transfer their curriculum on anatomy to a science course.
"Forcing our schools to instruct children on how to utilize contraceptives encourages our children to engage in sexual behavior, whether as a victim or an offender," he wrote. "It is akin to teaching children about alcohol use, then instructing them on how to make mixed alcoholic drinks."
Southworth, a Republican, says in his letter that he could charge teachers with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, depending on the specifics of cases he reviews.
"If a teacher instructs any student aged 16 or younger how to utilize contraceptives under circumstances where the teacher knows the child is engaging in sexual activity with another child - or even where the 'natural and probable consequences' of the teacher's instruction is to cause that child to engage in sexual intercourse with a child - that teacher can be charged under this statute" of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, he wrote.
He said the law went too far because it required teachers not to teach students about the effects of birth control, but on how to properly use them, "which turns objective instruction into implicit encouragement and advocacy."
Southworth says he "has an ethical obligation to tell districts his interpretation of the law."
"If I'd wanted to be ideological, I would have said in the letter you shouldn't have sex before marriage because that's the Christian perspective. I'm an evangelical."
I guess if you're an evangelical, you are above the law and can misinterpret it anyway you want.
He must have a "thing" about pregnant teenagers.
ReplyDeleteI posted this "vigorously" at my place so there is not much left to say, although there was "another" view, a video, that actually tried to defend the action. Unbelievable.
ReplyDelete"You don't prosecute kids for having sex."
ReplyDelete"Actually, we do."
Apparently, this guy thinks he lives in New England circa 1640.
I found a pic of Southworth and I think he's coming to atown near you.
ReplyDeletehttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2094/2163473547_d873986abb_o.jpg&imgrefurl=http://stephennewell.com/2008/01/03/januarys-puritan-richard-sibbes/&usg=__A2Xapj8R-k_T69F6xZOHDs6KqdE=&h=348&w=333&sz=20&hl=en&start=20&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=mlVSUTonvhBNMM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=115&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpuritans%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2GCNV_en%26tbs%3Disch:1
Jesus H. Christ! Can people get any dumber? Is his government going to foot the bill for all the teenagers having children?
I don't believe in judging a book by its cover, but in this case I might make an exception. He looks like a total moron.
ReplyDeleteI have been following this, this week in the media, I hadnt posted on it, since I posted so much already on how "children" are the most abused segment of especially American Society, actually used as a bargaining chip and commodity, in many court battles from custodies dispute's, to everything else. America is a "freak" society that speak's out of both side's of their mouth's, they are as a whole obsessed with sex. Now they are threatening teacher's with other silly stuff from the fundamoralist's, parent's are even full of shit for the most part. You turn on a tele here, they show girl's dancing exotic, with barely a patch of cloth covering the vaginal area, and the nipple of the girl, yet you can see everything else, that is so stupid. Even if your religious, think about it, your born naked and with genitalia, so that mean's God must have meant for folk's to walk around naked, and have sex anywayz, since he made ya'll's nature designed like that, these folk's are all silly, running around like a bunch of decapitated chicken's woofing and barking over petty manufactured morality nonsense. .... Look but dont touch, smell but dont taste crap, right/ wrong .... good/ evil nonsense ....sex this , sex that. Folk's are more worried over who their neighbor is having sex with than if North Korea plan's a nuclear attack their so dumb, this whole society sux, period. No wonder kid's try to isolate themselve's from these tired out seat warming bag's of wind. It's sad. But my thinking is a lil different as well .... I never cared much about "law's" one way or the other ... sadly many of these teacher's dont, so they fear everything.
ReplyDeleteLater Ms.TNlib .........
What's amazing is that the rightwing nut machine just gets crazier and crazier every day...you would think they'd have hit critical mass by now, but no. Amazing.
ReplyDelete"District Attorney Scott Southworth said such education encourages sex among children, which is illegal, and could lead to charges against teachers."
ReplyDeleteAnd his proof of this is . . . ?
No, Southworth doesn't have any proof. He pulled it out of a part of his anatomy that I'm guessing functions much better than his head.
By this guy's logic, if teachers educate students about the Spanish Inquisition, they're promoting torture. If they teach about the Civil War, they're promoting killing.
Must be a graduate of Robertson or Falwell's "Praise the Lord and Pass the Diploma" institution.
In any case, unless Southworth finds a judge who's as much of an evangelical crackpot as he is, his prosecutions will be dismissed, with a dirty look in his direction.
What I would like to know is, can't the people of Juneau County, Wisconsin, do any better than this for a DA?
SEX! Isn't there a co-relation between people who are obsessed with it (always talking about it) and people who don't/can't get it?
ReplyDeleteNobody has to encourage sex between children - they already "do it" - starting at 13.
But without sex education, kids are more prone to unwanted pregnancies and STDs. And how many parents, who already have their heads in the sand want to show their sons how to put on a condom - especially a single parent mom?
I'm sure everyone here knows that or you wouldn't be here, right? It goes without saying we're smarter than Southworth ---
Teabuggery is a SIN!! :-)
ReplyDelete