Excerpted from School Tells Kids to Hide Pro-“Gay” Propaganda from Parents, published Mar 13, 2007, by Concerned Women for America:

In a shocking and brazen act of governmental abuse of parental rights, Deerfield High School (DHS) in Deerfield, Illinois, has required fourteen-year-old freshmen to attend a “Straight Gay Alliance Network” (GSA) panel discussion led by “gay” and “lesbian” upperclassmen during a “freshman advisory” class which secretively featured inappropriate discussions of a sexual nature in promotion of high-risk homosexual behaviors.

Not only has DHS required that its young and impressionable freshmen be exposed to radical homosexual propaganda, the school has further required that students sign a “confidentiality agreement” promising not to tell anyone — including their own parents — about the discussion.

Matt Barber, Policy Director for Cultural Issues with Concerned Women for America (CWA), said of the scandal:

“This is unbelievable. It’s not enough that students at Deerfield High are being exposed to improper and offensive material relative to unhealthy and high-risk homosexual behaviors, but they’ve essentially been told by teachers to lie to their parents about it.

“This goes to the heart of the homosexual agenda. The professional propagandists in the ‘gay-rights’ lobby know the method all too well. If you can maintain control of undeveloped and impressionable youth and spoon-feed them misinformation, lies and half-truths about dangerous, disordered and extremely risky behaviors, then you can control the future and ensure that those behaviors are not only fully accepted, but celebrated. That’s what homosexual activists from GSA are attempting to do, and that’s what DHS is clearly up to as well.”

Dr. George Fornero, superintendent of DHS’ Dist. 113, told CWA that the district “made a mistake” by requiring children to sign the confidentiality agreement and that it would be entirely aboveboard and honest with parents in the future. However, as Barber noted, the damage has already been done: “Until DHS and other government schools across the country are made to stop promoting the homosexual agenda, kids will continue to be exposed to — and encouraged to participate in — a lifestyle that places them at high risk for life-threatening disease, depression and spiritual despair,” said Barber.

Remarkably, even after the school district’s surreptitious actions were exposed, parents were nonetheless told that they were not welcome to sit in on the “freshman advisory” and were not permitted to have access to materials used in compiling its activist curriculum.

Lora Sue Hauser, the head of North Shore Student Advocacy, has reported that students at Deerfield High School were asked to sign a ‘confidentiality agreement’ before listening to a panel discussion by homosexual students in a mandatory class called “Freshman Advisory.” If you want to learn more about the situation in Deerfield, IL — and what’s going on at schools across the nation:

The following letter is one couple’s effort to motivate their church leaders to become aware of the pro-GLBT indoctrination our kids are facing in the public schools:

Although you will read about this in Sunday’s bulletin, we thought we should personally ask you to consider coming to College Church in Wheaton this Sunday night. You will learn about the “gay” indoctrination that children you know and care about in this church — and this would include your own children — are encountering on a regular basis at area schools…

My 16-year-old daughter, who goes to [name deleted] ministries with your kids, has told me that there are a number of kids at our church — right now — who don’t know if they are “gay” or not because of the homosexual speakers who have come into the local schools challenging them with such questions as, “How do you know you’re heterosexual?”

My daughter has said to me,

“Mom, our church needs to be talking about this. There are a lot of confused kids at our church over this issue. It is because of the ‘gay’ speakers who come into their schools and talk about homosexuality. Nothing is being taught about it at church, and they really need to be doing something.”

…You, as church leaders, will not minister as effectively as you could if you understood what is creating this new area of counseling… When people walk through your office door, you’re encountering the fruit of this propaganda. By coming to this meeting, you will gather information to instruct you about the root of the problem. With knowledge comes understanding, and with understanding comes help. From a professional standpoint, you need to come Sunday night.

Excerpted from School Accused of Promoting Homosexuality, by Lisa Black, published Mar 7, 2007, by Chicago Tribune:

Some parents have accused Deerfield High School of promoting a homosexual agenda by allowing gay students to speak before freshman classes about their personal experiences, cite research and invite questions.

Taking place in classrooms this week, the panel sessions are scheduled during a class called freshman advisory, which seeks to help students adjust to high school. The class is mandatory, but parents can choose to remove their child on days the lessons concern them, school officials said.

But Deerfield resident and parent Lora Sue Hauser, who heads a group called North Shore Student Advocacy, wants to see the panel discontinued, saying it delves into complex issues of sexuality that are better addressed by parents and trained counselors. She said the panel is one of several ways that Deerfield High and other schools treat homosexuality as morally acceptable without presenting the viewpoints of those who disagree.

“The school makes heterosexuality and homosexuality equivalent, and our country is deeply divided on that,” said Hauser, who said dozens of parents belong to the advocacy group but fear they will be labeled as haters or religious fanatics if they speak out.

“You can’t dump that on a 14-year-old,” Hauser said. “These are really difficult waters to navigate.”

Continue reading at Chicago Tribune…

Thanks to the courage of local parents at Deerfield High School in Illinois, this ad recently ran in the community newspaper, the Deerfield Review.

D H S

WHAT’S GOING ON IN FRESHMAN ADVISORY?

TAKE ACTION — Send an e-mail Principal Kathy Fundukian and let her know that you object to public high school leadership allowing teenagers to mock the institution of marriage and that a public school is irresponsible to promote a lifestyle that is physically, emotionally, and spiritually destructive.

Excerpted from Gay Student ‘Weddings’ Anger California Parents, published Feb 27, 2007, by CitizenLink:

Some self-identified gay students at Glendale High School in California recently gathered in the cafeteria for fake wedding ceremonies — a school-sponsored event…

The “Freedom to Marry” event provided the couples with mock marriage certificates and included a petition drive calling on the government to allow same-sex marriage.

George Taylorson, a Glendale resident, said he’s appalled the school would allow the event.

“To encourage this type of lifestyle with kids that are 13, 14, on up, it just totally angers me and just disturbs me,” he told Family News in Focus. “The schools have a big-enough problem as it is just educating the kids without getting involved in such a highly sensitive area.”

…The goal of the ceremonies, backed by an openly gay teacher and the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance student club, was to “mock marriage.”

Continue reading at Citizenlink…

From our good friends at Culture Campaign and North Shore Student Advocacy (Illinois), originally published Feb 24, 2007:

Deerfield High School: Required Class for Freshmen Advocates Liberal and Pro-Gay Propaganda

As Culture Campaign reported last week, a letter to the editor in the Thursday, Feb. 15, issue of Deerfield Review has prompted some scrutiny of the curriculum being used in a freshman class called Freshman Advisory in District 113 (Deerfield and Highland Park High Schools).

According to Lora Sue Hauser, School Issues Advisor from Illinois Family Institute and parent in the Deerfield High School District, Freshman Advisory is a required class for freshmen in which a vast amount of time is devoted to exposing students to pro-homosexual propaganda:

This is a whole class designed for the “gay” agenda during the second semester as well as other liberal causes. In addition to the “gay” panel, last year’s curricula included movies (Common Threads, Bloodlines, Philadelphia), displaying the AIDS quilt, promoting Day of Silence, etc.

And even worse, this year parents cannot get even this much information. We have no idea what is actually being taught about sexual orientation. The teachers are not required to give full disclosure as to the content in their lesson plans.

How does this happen? It’s a simple formula: “gay” activist teachers = liberal curricula. In Deerfield, and other schools around the country, “gay” activists are in a position to choose curricula and they have no intention of staying neutral on these highly debated topics. They do not present alternative viewpoints even though they claim to welcome diverse views. We have repeatedly asked for a panel to speak on the subject of homosexuality from a moral and medical view but have been denied.

We are trying to get a copy of the 2007 Freshman Advisory Diversity curriculum, with specifics as to what is being taught but we’re hitting a brick wall.

Last year, there was a whole Diversity Packet including a Heterosexism Unit that was ghastly. It included playing a card game with all the sexually deviant terms (Genderqueer, Intersexual, MSM, Transgender, Transsexual, Sex Reassignment Surgery, Transphobia, Down-Low, Cross Dressers, etc.) and students had to match the definitions.

It was followed by discussions asking such questions as “What questions or confusion do you have around language describing lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people?” or “In your experience, has LGBT terminology been understood and used properly at Deerfield High School.” Of course, all this material comes from GLSEN.

The curriculum also included a Social Justice Education Unit teaching “Power Over & Power Under ” ideologies with Whites, Males, Heterosexuals, Christians/Gentiles, and the Rich being those with “Power Over.” During the lesson plan, they change the wording to be “Non-target” and “Target” stating that the “Power Over” group target people for mistreatment. This kind of teaching sets the ideological stage for anyone who tries to question the curriculum. We are the ones who “Target.”

This is nothing short of propaganda to the youngest students in a high school.

According to the North Shore Student Advocacy Group (NSSA):

1. District 113 Superintendent, George Fornero, and school board members have been unwilling to meet with parents and concerned taxpayers. Dr. Fornero, new to District 113, was acting superintendent in Ann Arbor, MI where his school district, Ann Arbor Public Schools, was sued for not allowing a student to present an alternate viewpoint on a panel of those supporting homosexual behavior. The district lost the suit.
2. Last year, adult gay author Alex Sanchez was brought in by the Straight and Gay Alliance (SAGA) to speak to students after school. He promoted his sexually graphic books and website (which links to forty-five gay bars, fetish groups and even a ‘leather’ group — ie, sado-masochism).

It is a violation of state law and school policy for teachers to promote sexual behavior. It is also a violation of the Equal Access Act for SAGA advisors to be in anything other than a custodial role for non-curriculum extracurricular groups.

Deerfield High School has some explaining to do…

TAKE ACTION — Do you know whether your child’s teachers, school counselors, and principal are normalizing homosexual behavior in your local school? Find out! (You can use the Risk Audit PDF from Mission America.) Then react to what you learn — for example, if your school has a “GSA” make it known in writing that your children are not permitted to participate in their presentations, meetings, or activities.

Excerpted from Gay Teens Coming Out Earlier to Peers and Family, by Marilyn Elias, published Feb 8, 2007, by USA Today:

…Gay teenagers are “coming out” earlier than ever, and many feel better about themselves than earlier generations of gays, youth leaders and researchers say. The change is happening in the wake of opinion polls that show growing acceptance of gays, more supportive adults and positive gay role models in popular media.

…Still, many continue to have a tough time. The worst off, experts say, are young people in conservative rural regions and children whose parents cannot abide having gay offspring. Taunting at school is still common…

…Schools are more likely than in the past to have openly gay staff members who can help young people, says Anthony D’Augelli, an associate dean at Pennsylvania State University. In a recent national survey, one-third of school psychologists said they had counseled students or parents about sexual orientation.

In the mid-1990s, a few dozen Gay-Straight Alliance clubs were in U.S. high schools; now 3,200 are registered with the education network, Jennings says.

The Internet also has eased isolation for gay teens, offering a place for socializing and support, says Stephanie Sanders of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction in Bloomington, Ind.

Cultural diversity is prevalent

Teens are coming out in an era when more Americans than ever consider homosexuality acceptable. In 2006, 54% found homosexuality acceptable, compared with 38% in 1992, Gallup polls show.

Youths also swim in a cultural sea that’s far more pro-gay than ever, says Ritch Savin-Williams, a psychologist at Cornell University and author of The New Gay Teenager. From MTV’s The Real World to Will & Grace and Ellen DeGeneres hosting the Oscars, “kids can see gays in a positive light,” he says…

…Not everyone applauds the soaring number of school-based gay/straight alliances and adult-led programs for gay teens. “Homosexuality is harmful to society, and young people have no business committing to a sexual identity until they’re adults,” says Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, a conservative policy group. The council backs a new Georgia law, first in the nation, that requires schools to tell parents about clubs and allows them to forbid their children to participate in gay/straight alliances.