Washington school allows Planned Parenthood ‘educator’ to teach fifth grade sex ed

Fifth graders in Washington state are being subjected to Planned Parenthood-taught classes, and one parent is leading the charge to fight back against this infiltration. Erin Graham, the parent of a fifth grader, discovered the abortion corporation’s connection in March when a letter came home with her son, informing parents that students in the fifth grade would be participating in a human growth and development unit. Included in the letter was a comment that Washington state requires students be taught about HIV prevention.

Parent letter from Bellingham Schools, 3/15/18

But Graham discovered there was much more to the lessons than disease prevention. She explained in an interview with Live Action News:

Indeed, the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) notes: “[a] student may be removed from HIV/AIDS prevention education if the student’s parent or guardian, having attended one of the district presentations, objects in writing to such participation.”

As a concerned parent, Graham wanted to discover what her fifth grader would be learning if she allowed him to take the class. “The curriculum isn’t great as written,” she said, “but the room for interpretation is vast and when you throw in an instructor from Planned Parenthood, it becomes downright dangerous.”

READ: Porn, BDSM: Planned Parenthood’s dangerous sex education comes to Florida

And that was one of her concerns when she found out that the district had, indeed, worked with Planned Parenthood in order to provide a sex educator. Graham had an ongoing dialogue with the district’s Wellness Director, Jessica Sankey, and the school principal, Mary Sepler, over the Planned Parenthood connection. On March 26, Graham wrote to Sepler and fifth grade teacher Jeff Hilburn, with the assumption they did not realize the school was bringing in a Planned Parenthood educator. Graham, who shared her correspondence with Live Action News, wrote:

However, there was nothing to reveal to the district; it had entered into the arrangement with full knowledge of the connection to Planned Parenthood from their representative, Christine Hagstrom, which was outlined in an advisory committee meeting over a year before:

Graham did not know this at the time she wrote to the principal, but when she discovered it, she wrote to the principal on March 27:

The principal said she had intended to send the information in her weekly newsletter, with varying parts explained over time, since the lessons were a ways off at the time of their dialogue. On March 29, Principal Sepler wrote a newsletter post to parents, which explained the unit and provided links to the lessons.

But Graham says that newsletter is not enough. Parents have to choose to receive the newsletter, so not all parents would even get it. Further, she told Live Action News the newsletters are usually not about such topics, and, thus, parents might not even be inclined to consider it important reading, even if they have opted in:

She pointed this out in her response to the principal:

Graham had also questioned the need to have a Planned Parenthood educator teach the unit, asking why the school had not chosen to reach out to a medical professional, who is more qualified to teach human growth and development material, or even to a pregnancy resource center, where trained health educators were also available. She concluded her note: “There are so many more reliable, less controversial and more respectful sources of human health and reproduction information out there. ” But she seemed to hit dead ends because Bellingham, apparently, wasn’t looking for other resources.

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Sex Ed Curriculum

Beginning with the first lesson and the puberty video the principal told Graham and parents who received the newsletter fifth graders would be watching, there are many things that would potentially bother parents. While the video simply explains development, it has young children, likely 5th or 6th graders themselves, asking questions such as the following, posed by young boy: “I can’t believe I’m asking this, but sometimes my penis gets hard. What’s that all about?”

There are also discussions of “wet dreams.” And the video goes on to say that children don’t have to talk to their parents about these things if they are not comfortable (not many 10 year olds would likely feel comfortable discussing erections and wet dreams with mom), but they can talk to anyone they want. While parents have access to this video if they opt in to the newsletter, it’s 26 minutes long, and many may not take time to watch the entire video, trusting the school to take care of age-appropriate curriculum. But the program, called KNOW, is not what many parents would consider appropriate.

As the advisory group minutes from over a year ago noted, the middle school uses the KNOW curriculum for sex education, which Hagstrom also teaches, and lessons can be open to curricular interpretation.

From KNOW Curriculum, as posted on the Washington state schools’ site: http://www.k12.wa.us/HIVSexualHealth/pubdocs/KNOWGrades5-6.pdf

The HIV lesson sample the principal sent is a condensed version of the same lesson contained in the KNOW Curriculum.

Lesson plan sent by principal of Lowell Elementary

Lesson Plan for KNOW Curriculum

The KNOW Curriculum is fairly tame in the fifth grade, but it’s designed to be built upon, so even at age 10, it plants those seeds in children. In fifth grade, the lessons emphasizes that “Kids their age almost never get HIV, because having sex and sharing needles are not things that kids do,” but by seventh grade, Washington state’s KNOW Curriculum manual notes guidelines for teachers to:

This curriculum isn’t new to the state, however. Live Action News has reported on this controversial curriculum in another Washington state school district, as parents helped boot out another Planned Parenthood connected curriculum, Get Real!, only to find out the school district may have duped them into Planned Parenthood-connected curriculum anyway with its use of the KNOW Curriculum. As Live Action News reported then:

Indeed, the Bellingham Schools advisory group was told that Hagstrom was the current coordinator for Whatcom Teen Council, explaining that the “Teen Council presents about abstinence in middle schools and lessons are usually 55 minutes.” That line alone shows the misleading nature of Planned Parenthood’s involvement in Belligham’s schools, because abstinence is not remotely its focus. In fact, abstinence cannot be the focus, because the state of Washington’s policy for teaching “Comprehensive Sexual Health Education” requires more than abstinence be taught:

But Whatcom Teen Council doesn’t need a state policy to be sure to avoid promoting abstinence. The group is Planned Parenthood-connected, and, consequently, promotes abortion, birth control, and other sexual related activity not related to abstinence. Live Action News reported on the abortion corporation’s teen affiliate group recently. The previous sponsor took his students to Washington, D.C., to lobby for reproductive rights, among other things. Bellingham Schools completely misled parents with its comment that the Teen Council simply comes into schools to teach abstinence. In fact, as Live Action News noted then:

And the KNOW Curriculum that Hagstrom is trained to teach in Bellingham’s middle school program is no less toxic, despite how it innocent it may seem in lower grades.

Seeds that are planted and watered grow up to be strong. And that’s what Planned Parenthood is hoping for when it comes to its sex ed curriculum. As Graham discovered, lessons taught in the fifth grade may seem innocent enough at first, but by selecting a Planned Parenthood presenter, and using a Planned Parenthood-affiliated curriculum, students will continue to have these ideas nurtured.

By the time they are high school students, even the ones not applying to be abortion evangelists by joining the Whatcom Teen Council likely will have it indoctrinated in them to be lifelong followers of Planned Parenthood.

And that’s just what Graham and many other concerned parents don’t believe should be taught in their children’s schools.