California Catholic Daily exclusive

By Eric Francis

Concerned Parents of San Diego Unified rallied at the San Diego Unified School District on February 27 to tell the board of education their sex education program is “too much too soon.”

The “Rally4Kids” drew people from all corners of San Diego to confront the school board.

They said pornography, abortion and the full gamut of adult sexual behavior are being promoted to children and that this oversexualization will cause more “#MeToo” victims.

The Sexual Health Education Program (SHEP) was developed by Advocates for Youth in San Diego public schools in 2016. It came after the California Healthy Youth Act was passed.

CHYA mandates in Section 51934(3) that instruction must teach that “abstinence from sexual activity and injection drug use is the only certain way to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.”

Parents complain the San Diego curriculum does not comply with the law. Along with abstinence, sixth graders are taught that bathing together and mutual masturbation are activities that have no risk of STI.

They also complain the curriculum is too graphic. “It’s Perfectly Normal,” a book with an image its critics describe as cartoon porn, depicts a nude couple in bed together. The book is frequently banned in libraries around the country, yet it is distributed to SDUSD staff to educate children.

At one time the school district provided students access to a video about pornography. The cartoon video features characters “Miles Long” and “Julie Melons.” The video has the apparent purpose of educating children that pornography is not realistic, but it contains nude cartoon images itself and says that viewing porn is “perfectly normal.”

Judith Fernandez told the board: “These are images that cannot be shown on the six o’clock news but are being shown to our students.”

Concerned parents say that too much sex education is grooming children for premature sexual interest and creating prey for child predators.

Gail Levine accused SHEP of being an agenda to “psychologically manipulate children.”

Some who attended the rally were concerned that curriculum author Advocates for Youth proudly promotes abortion and that students are taught in class they can get abortions without parental consent or notification.

Knights of Columbus officer and San Diego city council candidate Tony Villafranca (Dist. 4) came to the rally to show his support for upholding family values in public schools. “I want to keep Planned Parenthood far away from our schools,” he said.

One provision in the CHYA, Section 51933(4) states, “Instruction and materials shall not reflect or promote bias against any person on the basis of [religion]…” Some protesters said the curriculum ridicules religious perspectives on sexuality and discriminates against the religious community.

Dean Broyles, the attorney representing the concerned parents, said, “The district should be partnering with religious communities and parents, not undermining them and attacking them.”

Since CHYA became law parents have protested excessive sex education in other cities across California including Cupertino and Palo Alto.

The San Diego protest movement created a petition that has received over 2,000 signatures.