BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN – HONOLULU — State Rep. Bob McDermott, who enrolled his eight children in Hawaii’s public schools, doesn’t want his 11-year-old son exposed to a controversial taxpayer-funded sex education program.
That program is taught in 12 public schools across the state, and the Hawaii Department of Education is planning to expand the curriculum to others.
That’s spurred McDermott to renew his fight to get the program revised or pulled altogether. He’s releasing a 21-page report Monday entitled “The Pono Choices Curriculum: Sexualizing the Innocent” detailing his concerns. He also plans to make a plea to the Hawaii Board of Education at its Tuesday meeting, and hold a legislative briefing Wednesday evening for parents.
The 10-hour program, called Pono Choices (pono is a Hawaiian word that translates to “the right way”), is designed for youth aged 11 to 13. It has been taught to 1,700 Hawaii middle school children through an $800,000 pilot program.
McDermott said the program is “medically inaccurate” and not biology based, and that it teaches children about topics such as anal sex, sex with multiple partners and how to put on a condom — using a cucumber or wooden replica of a penis.
“The program normalizes a homosexual lifestyle and anal sex, while failing to warn students of the extreme dangers of anal sex; it references multiple sex partners, while failing to inform students about the health benefits of monogamy; it fails to warn students about the ineffectiveness of condoms against HPV, herpes, and anal sex; and fails to educate students on the stages of human reproduction,” McDermott said, providing Hawaii Reporter with an early copy of his report.
“Any talk of anal sex — which the curriculum does frequently — is instinctively repulsive for pre-pubescent children. Additionally, calling the anus a genital — as Pono Choices does — is just plain medically wrong,” McDermott said.
Among his other arguments: the curriculum’s definition of oral sex isn’t consistent with the definition commonly found in medical literature, data on condom use and effectiveness is inaccurate with regard to HPV, herpes, and HIV and the curriculum ignores the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s warning regarding the risks of condom use when engaging in anal sex.
The DOE maintains the program is medically accurate, and points out parents can opt their children out of the program.
Parents are invited to a Pono Choices Parent Night through a letter that’s sent home with their child informing them their child will study teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection prevention as part of health education, the DOE in a statement in mid-December. They also learn how to use a condom as part of the program.
“For any curriculum or lesson that addresses reproductive health, parents have the option of requesting that their child not receive the instruction,” the DOE statement said.
However, McDermott said what parents are told — and students are taught — are very different.
“The parental opt-out forms are woefully inadequate. They lack clarity and transparency by concealing some controversial aspects of the material,” McDermott said.
In November, McDermott requested a copy of the curriculum, which was developed by the University of Hawaii. The DOE and university denied his request for several weeks.
McDermott said DOE spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz told him in an email that the course material wouldn’t be made public, but offered to have the lead researcher “address any questions.”
That researcher, Kelly Robert, told McDermott in a follow-up email: “We are not releasing the curriculum or associated materials to anyone who has not gone through the Pono Choices training.”
Once he obtained a copy and reviewed it with his staff attorney and others, McDermott felt the curriculum fails to inform children of the exponentially increased risks of male on male anal sex.
“Such omission renders the entire document questionable at best and agenda-driven social engineering at worst,” McDermott said.
The program is also contrary to state law and policies regarding abstinence-based sexual education, McDermott said.
“The curriculum treats sexual activity before the age of 14 as a viable choice, despite the state sexual assault law, which puts the age of consent at 16,” McDermott said.
The DOE maintained in a statement that abstinence is taught, but McDermott said “it is not the central message of the curriculum,” which he said gives a mixed message.
The DOE pulled the program in late November 2013 to review it after parents and some legislators complained, but reinstated the program after two weeks and announced its expansion to other schools.
Others share McDermott’s concerns. Senate Minority Leader Sam Slom, R-Hawaii Kai-Diamond Head, agrees that parts of the curriculum aren’t appropriate for middle school students.
Hawaii Republican Assembly, a local conservative organization, issued a statement Monday calling Pono Choices, “Porno Choices” and encouraged parents to attend both the BOE meeting Tuesday and the legislative briefing Wednesday.
“It’s time to fight back,” said organization spokesman Tito Montes.
Reach Malia Zimmerman at Malia@hawaiireporter.com
I wonder what was wrong with Barry Soetero. Isn't he a product of the Hawaii school system?
Surveys show that ONE FOURTH of the public school teachers themselves send their own children to private schools around the islands. Proving that they don't believe in the product that they are "selling" themselves.
Too bad all of these public school teacher can't be forced to take their own medicine.
Another great example of how the State is brainwashing human beings to be unthinking, immoral, consumers with one overriding characteristic : mindlessly obeying and never questioning authority figures. Ok, well if that's the way it is, fine. Pretty easy remedy – do the exact opposite of what any 'authority' tells you to do and teach your kids to think for themselves and never, ever, assume or believe anything without doing your own investigation. Then, throw away your TV, boycott mega multinational corporations, shun debt, and support your local community in every way. Hold no wealth in banker credit (currency), or any kind of paper, instead invest in real assets. Don't vote. Oppose in every way the attempt to Distract us, Divide us, Dumb us down, and make us Dependent on governments or corporations. Easy mon, you know what to do!
You got that right buddy!
Now the liberal teachers are teaching kids that anal sex is " an act of sexual reproduction". How nice.
At a New York school, kids were taught that they could define abstinence themselves, including oral sex.
Its the liberals way of birth control and if you get Aids well its OK in California.
It is. Where do you think lawyers come from ?
This pono choice issue is another attempt to omit God. ALSO creationism vs. emolution at KHON2's website; https://khon2.com/2014/02/04/bill-nye-defends-evol…
One commented; "Creationism is the lazy man's solution to explaining the biology in the world around us. It's a terrible disservice to learning to tell children that evolution is just too complicated to have actually happened (despite all of the evidence supporting evolution) and the correct answer is that a deity instead just waved a hand. Fostering that kind of laziness in students helps no one."
outside of the extreme basics of how to prevent STD's to already sexed 11 year old children sex education should not go this far. Children do not need this kind of knowledge. To rob a child of his innocence should be a crime.
It IS a crime. It's called pedophelia. At the very least I would think it's "contributing to the delinquency of a minor".
Hawaii Democrats have been sodomizing
the public for so long, it seems perfectly
normal to brainwash the kids to make it even
easier.
My two oldest sons were born in Hawaii. I moved out of the State before they entered into the school system, which ranks as one of the worst in the country. Unfortunately the extreme vocal far left has taken control of the educational system and the concerns of the majority have been trashed in favor of extreme diversity.
Parents, if you love your children and have any common sense, you'll either homeschool them, send them to private school, or (if you're going to leave them in public school), you'd better fight like He11 for their souls.
Here's the information that they don't want to disclose.
The risks associated with sexual promiscuity and homosex:
* Syphilis
* Gonorrhea
* Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
* Hepatitis
* HIV/AIDS
* Anal/Rectal cancer
* Gay Bowel Syndrome
* High Incidence of Mental Health Problems
* Twice the rate of Domestic violence than heterosexuals
* Higher incidence of Depression
* Greater risk of becoming an alcoholic
* Greater risk of becoming a drug-abuser
* Reduced Life Span
* Greater Risk for Suicide
None of these Planned Parenthood sex ed curriculum/ sex ed "standards" mention that there is an STD epidemic going on, and that half of those being diagnosed are youth.
Patrick, you left out drug use, in particular meth use among gays. In NYC it has been as high as 25% using it during sex. It's not that much now but it's still in double digits.
Well you're half right. Promiscuity increases the chances of contracting STD's. Monogamous homosexuality between two healthy people is no more a risk factor than it is between a similar opposite sex couple. Of course if you are trying to justify your prejudice with statistics then you should also complain that the program doesn't teach that negroes are 28 times as likely to have some std's than non-hispanic caucasians and caucasians are more likely to have std's than mongoloid race people.
You forgot colostomy bags by age 40
You forgot….sexual promiscuity will get you a one way ticket to HELL!
State Department of Education convened a working group this past Thursdsay to review Pono Choices, a sexual health education curriculum taught in some middle schools as part of a research study by the University of Hawaii's Center on Disability Studies. Parents should start e-mailing at hipublicschools@gmail.com. as the working group meets again on Feb. 27 and welcomes public input through noon on Feb. 26 via email
Read more: https://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/doe-convenes-grou…
3Qi
I think it is time to grant Hawaii independence while keeping a perpetual lease on military bases.
Exposing 11 year old kids to the teaching of sodomy is pedophilia. This reminds me of somebody caught with pictures of naked children on his computer and he claims it was for his research in writing a book on pedophiles.
I agree completely. This is disgusting and should not be happening in a sane society.
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