Hawaii lawmaker renews fight to end or revise controversial sex ed program

Hawaii Reporter ^ | MALIA ZIMMERMAN

[Morgana]

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.

[SoConPubbie]

From the Article:

“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.