Tuesday, April 17, 2012

BVSD Imports Religious Speaker To Teach Sex Ed

Brand Seng preaches a pro-life, chaste lifestyle. All of his work is rooted in his faith. His web site is bradseng.com. Check it out. The kids in BVSD schools are being directed to his web site during his demonstrations in Boulder Valley Public Middle and High Schools.

In his presentation at Southern Hills Middle School on Friday, April 6, 2012 he did a demonstration with dirty food spit into water glasses and a clean water glass. He also told the kids he lost his virginity and then got it back. A few kids said he used the word "faith".

Of course, everything I am telling you about his time with the BVSD children is coming from the kids themselves. Because I wasn't there. I wasn't notified of a religious speaker coming to talk with my kid or given a chance to respond or attend myself.

My complaints are not in any way with Brad Seng. He can preach whatever he would like. The problem is that he was brought into a public middle and high school system under the radar of the parents. It frightens me what else the school has been forcing on my kid I might not be aware of from the last three years. I am disappointed with the responses that I received from the Principal at Southern Hills Middle School. So far they appear to see nothing wrong with bringing Brad Seng in to talk to our kids. I was passed along three times when I called the BVSD Office of the Superintendent. But when the third person, Roy Holloway, called me back I felt he listened to my concerns carefully. I appreciated that. He said the school district would take a few days to sort it out.

There are many kids in BVSD with parents who engage regularly in sex outside of marriage. There are also many kids with same sex parents who aren't legally allowed to marry yet. Do they love any less? Are their families any less valuable than those of married people having sex? Of course not. To even suggest that there is something dirty or worth spitting on regarding human sexuality is wrong. Teach abstinence in a way all of the kids will respect and value for what it is, without any religious morality attached. I think the kids should be taught to always represent themselves and never feel pressured into anything, by anyone, especially sexually. But religious sexual morality preaching is not appropriate in any public school.

In my perfect world BVSD would have already have apologized to all of the parents and removed Brad Seng and any other religious based speakers from their roster of approved speakers.

But as it stands, Brad Seng is scheduled to speak at Fairview High School May 2, 2012.

14 comments:

  1. Hi Laura... I just read about this in the Daily Camera and I'm surprised that the BVSD approved this guy to speak to students. This seems to be a violation of church/state and maybe it's time to talk with AU (Americans United) http://www.au.org/
    JWms

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  2. I hope you and whatever organization helps you is successful in getting this program out of public schools. Hopefully it will send a message to other school districts considering hiring a preacher instead of a teacher for sex ed.

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  3. Hi Laura!

    I am so impressed by your decision to take a stand against this nonsense. Ten years ago when I was in a public Georgia middle school we did very similar exercises and they were conducted by our regular health/p.e. teachers-and yes it was abstinence only education. They even told us that aids could be transmitted through condoms and that we weren't allowed to ask about "H.A.M" aka homosexuality, abortion, masturbation. It was the most unhealthy and harmful look at sex that I have ever seen and unfortunately, for many kids, it was the only information that they ever received. There is no reason that programs like this should exist! Thank you for being an awesome mom and an excellent person! Religion and misinformation have no place in our public schools as they only harm students. Keep fighting the good fight!

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    1. Wow. That is beyond imagination. Was this in a public school too?

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  4. P.S. Don't even get me started on the A.T.M. cards that we had to sign and keep, and yes those were Abstinence Till Marriage cards that looked like bank cards and were signed on the back on your wedding night. So disgusting!

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    1. Again, wow! We sent our daughter to a religious school from kindergarten to the second grade. Then we decided to send her to a public school to remove the religious experience from her secular education. The two public elementary schools she previously attended were excellent and never had any religious orientation. But our experience at Southern Hills Middle School has been different.

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  5. Laura,
    I back you 100%. I also feel the school holds the parents at arms length when they have speakers come in. Why weren't we notified of who the speakers would be and what affiliation they were connected to? I think the conversation needs to be had, and better thinking needs to prevail. We deserve a lot more information than just Terrys' blanket statement "He's a really great guy" .( Which, by the way, were the same words he said to me when my then sixth grader was physically man-handled by BVSD's head of the schools' science program in a Southern Hills classroom.) But I digress.......Thank you for speaking out and at the very least making it possible for us parents to have the conversation at home with our kids about this issue. Any support you need just let me know and I will be calling BVSD about this issue also.

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    1. Many of the parents I have spoken with in the last week share your "at arms length" feeling as well. I feel so lucky that my daughter told me about her experience. I am so proud that she knew both intellectually and ethically this presentation should not have happened. And it appears, for the last five years, that none of the parents in BVSD have had any idea this was going on. I think most BVSD parents would object or opt out of their kid being exposed to this presentation if they had been given the opportunity to do so. Thanks.

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  6. Why, if outsourcing the lesson, did the school choose not to work with a medical professional? Perhaps the reason for the lesson related to sexual health was not intended as a health lesson?
    Have they given any indication whether they will be informing us in greater detail of the content of the sex education lessons in the future?

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  7. I'm a little late to this conversation and stumbled upon it today.

    Like others that have responded perhaps the presentation went a little too far with portraying sex as "dirty" or "nasty". That said, I am a follower of Christ and can appreciate the message that Mr. Seng is promoting re: abstinence. But instead of debating those details the core point of this article is that public schools should not teach anything that violates the "separation of church and state". And I can live with that given it's the reality we live in today. We can debate it but if we are to hold true to that separation for a public institution we need to look more broadly at other topics other than sex-ed. And we need to look at the reverse case where topics are presented as "fact" but truly are nothing more than theory. It's a slippery slope. Where do we draw the line? Government, in some cases (and in this case), believes they know what is best for us. This situation could perhaps be an example for why government shouldn't be in the business of education.

    Another angle to this; even if the school teacher were to present on a topic their personal view point is bound to come into play at some point, whether religious or not. And isn't a non-religious position also a position?

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  8. I went to southern hills and its all bullshit. Terry Gillach is a prejudiced asshole who imposes his personal beliefs on students. All that stood up to him were falsely accused of doing drugs and constantly bullied by him. He is on a total power trip for some reason and enjoys controlling students and everyone around him. He treats those he knows can't stand up to him and the school's dumb rules like scum on his shoe. I never received any respect or politeness from him, except when my parents or my freinds parents were around. I am not at all surprised by this blatant disregard of others religions and beliefs, because he exhibited all these characteristics while i was in attendance of this hellhole. He obviously thinks we are his inferiors, and that he doesn't need to respect our opinions ad that he is an all ruling monarch who can crush opposing beliefs and dissent without fear of any repercussions. He specifically banned t-shirts of a band he didn't like, because they were " violent" , and he ate every single thing he thought was drugs in our lunches. I watched him call students and friends of mine he didn't like into his office to try to pressure into (falsely) admitting they did drugs and were bad people. He went out of his way to make those people he did not like life's miserable. He is not fit to be any where near children or school and is an arrogant fucking asshole.

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