UPDATE: ARE YOU A RESIDENT OF HELENA OR HAVE A CHILD IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM? IF SO, SEND TODD AN EMAIL: todd.starnes@foxnews.com.
A proposed plan to teach kindergartners sex education has come under fire in Helena, Montana.
The Helena Public School system is considering a comprehensive plan for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It includes teaching first graders that people can be attracted to the same gender. In second grade students are instructed to avoid gay slurs and by the time students turn 10 years old they are taught about various types of intercourse.
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According to the draft proposal obtained by FOX News Radio, fifth graders should “understand that sexual intercourse includes but is not limited to vaginal, oral, or anal penetration.”
Jeff Laszloffy, of the Montana Family Foundation, is among those outraged that educators want to teach sex education to kindergarteners.
“It’s absolutely insane,” Laszloffy told FOX News Radio. “This is not education. This has crossed the line and has gone from education to indoctrination and that’s the problem parents have.”
“This is not the reason we send our kids to school – to be indoctrinated on different sex positions,” he said. “These types of conservations should be had between parents and their children at the appropriate time and we don’t think it’s the state’s job to determine when that time is.”
School superintendent Bruce Messinger told FOX News Radio that parents have fair questions about the content of the plan.
“This is by design a formative process,” he said, noting that the section about human sexuality has drawn the most attention.
He said educators are looking at the age-appropriateness of the material and said final decisions won’t be made until August.
“There will be plenty of time for public comment,” he said. Messinger said they are working through how the content would be taught and how the curriculum would be presented to students.
He said the school system stresses parental involvement and said that anyone with objections to classroom material has the option of pulling their child out of the class.
“We honor that,” he said.
Messinger defended teaching sex education in grade school based on national data that he said indicates a growing number of 10, 11, and 12-year-olds becoming sexually active.
Have an opt-out program. Sometimes we create alternative activities for the students.
“It’s an unfortunate occurrence,” he said.
Laszloffy said the bottom line is that the program puts government between parents and their children.
“It tramples parental rights and we think those rights need to be upheld,” he said.
A final vote on the proposal is expected in August.
A North Carolina pastor was relieved of his duties as an honorary chaplain of the state house of representatives after he closed a prayer by invoking the name of Jesus.
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“I got fired,” said Ron Baity, pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. He had been invited to lead prayer for an entire week but his tenure was cut short when he refused to remove the name Jesus from his invocation.
Baity’s troubles began during the week of May 31. He said a House clerk asked to see his prayer. The invocation including prayers for our military, state lawmakers and a petition to God asking him to bless North Carolina.”
“When I handed it to the lady, I watched her eyes and they immediately went right to the bottom of the page and the word Jesus,” he told FOX News Radio. “She said ‘We would prefer that you not use the name Jesus. We have some people here that can be offended.’”
When Baity protested, she brought the matter to the attention of House Speaker Joe Hackney.
“I told her I was highly offended when she asked me not to pray in the name of Jesus because that does constitute my faith,” Baity said. “My faith requires that I pray in His name. The Bible is very clear.”
When the clerk returned, Baity said he was told that he would be allowed to deliver the day’s prayer – but after that – his services would no longer be needed.
Hackney, a Democrat, and House Republican Leader Paul Stam released a joint statement to FOX News Radio:
“It has been our practice in the North Carolina House of Representatives for many years to request, but not require, that our guest chaplains deliver a nonsectarian prayer. This is intended as a show of respect for all the religions practiced by the members of the House and the people we represent.”
“In this instance, we allowed Pastor Baity to deliver his prayer, without interference, even though it was sectarian in nature. Nonetheless, we will review our procedures and guidelines concerning guest chaplains, and we will make sure we abide by applicable constitutional procedures. The House will adjourn within the next few days, but the results of this review will be publicly available whenever it is complete.”
Baity said he’s not happy with the way he was treated.
“When the state tells you how to pray, that you cannot use the name of Jesus – that’s mandating a state religion,” he said. “They talk about not offending other people but at the same time, if they are telling me how to pray – that’s the very thing our forefathers left England for.”
The Christian Law Association helped Baity draft a letter asking for an apology and an opportunity to return to the state capitol and finish his tenure.
“The First Amendment promises all Americans the free exercise of their religion, which includes the right to pray as their faith requires, even when they are invited to open state legislative sessions with prayer,” attorney David Gibbs told WXII-TV. “We trust that the North Carolina House of Representatives will realize its mistake and will offer Pastor Baity another opportunity to pray without requiring him to use a prayer that is mandated by government.”
Baity said he is still stunned by what happened.
“You would expect this somewhere else – Cuba, Saudi Arabia,” he told FOX News Radio. “You would never anticipate this happening in the United States of America.”
In a word – the pastor said – the decision is “anti-Christian.”
If you sell a bird or a snake in San Francisco, you could wind up in jail.
The city’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare will consider an ordinance tonight that would make it a crime to sell pets – including dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats — everything except for fish.
If the ordinance is passed, San Francisco could become the first city in the nation to ban the sale of all pets.
“People buy small animals all the time as an impulse buy, don’t know what they’re getting into, and the animals end up at the shelter and often are euthanized,” Chairwoman Sally Stephens told the San Francisco Chronicle. “That’s what we’d like to stop.”
Pet store owners are fighting mad.
“It’s terrible,” pet store manager John Chan told the newspaper. “A pet store that can’t sell pets? It’s ridiculous.”
The Board of Supervisors would have final say on the issue.
New York City police officers are outraged after a parole board released a Muslim cop killer.
Shu’aib Raheem was convicted in the 1973 murder of Stephen Gilroy. The 29-year-old officer was shot during a botched robbery and hostage standoff at a Brooklyn sporting goods store. He was released from the New York’s Dept. of Corrections on July 2.
“What the hell were they thinking,” said Patricia Gilroy, the officer’s widow, in an interview with New York Daily News.
In 2008 Raheem said he regretted his role in the deadly siege that left several hostages wounded. “I’m not an animal,” he said in remarks quoted by the newspaper. “Believe me, I regret that day and will regret it the rest of my life. I understand the pain I caused.”
His release sparked condemnation from NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Pat Lynch, the head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.
“Every New York City police officer is outraged,” he told FOX News Radio. “He killed a New York City police officer in cold blood. It’s an absolute disgrace to take this sub-human and allow him to walk the streets of this state or any state.”
The parole board voted 2-1 to release Raheem. Transcripts have not been released so it’s unclear why he was set free. Regardless, Lynch said the board made the wrong decision.
“You can’t take that type of evil out of a man,” he said. “They made the wrong decision and we have to live with the consequences.”
The New York State Division of Parole told FOX News Radio Raheem was released to an address in Manhattan. He will be required to check in with his parole officer once a week.
