 On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com. |
Carroll: Inciting recklessness
‘I’ve been told this is a very liberal high school and that I’m probably speaking to the choir in telling you to have healthy sexual behavior because most of your parents have probably given you similar views. But, you know, when you’re 13, 12, 13, 14, then certainly one of the most appropriate sexual behaviors would be masturbation. Masturbate. Please masturbate!”
Let’s see if we’ve got this straight. According to this speaker on a sex-and-drugs panel at Boulder High School last month, at which attendance was required, you should masturbate from age 12 through 14. And after 14? What’s “healthy sexual behavior” then, pray tell?
Rest assured the panel of four luminaries — including a psychology professor based in Beverly Hills and a Los Angeles “storyteller” — didn’t shrink from answering. Go for it: Have sex. Do drugs. Drink. You’re going to do it anyway. So do it “responsibly” and within the limits of “your emotional development” (as if a 16-year-old would have any idea what that is) and “what you can handle” (ditto).
One panelist advised finding “balance with having the fun and experimenting and enjoying what you’re doing, whether it’s learning, or sexually or with drugs or alcohol ... But keep focused.” (Not so easy after the third or fourth drink, but never mind the contradiction.) Another said, “I’m going to encourage you to have sex, and I’m going to encourage you to use drugs appropriately.”
Surely the lowlight of the day, based upon the audiotape, occurred when a female student asked the panelists, “Would you have sex with someone you liked but he doesn’t love you?” To accompanying laughs, one by one the panelists answered yes. As one of them smugly explained, “I’ve had sex with women who didn’t love me and it was one of the most incredible nights of my life.”
Now, it’s one thing to suggest that some parents — how many I have no idea — associated with a “very liberal high school,” or any high school, might not be surprised or even disappointed to discover their high school kids had experienced sex. But even if that’s true, it hardly means those parents would endorse a sexually promiscuous lifestyle for their teens. Surely the vast majority would not.
“I tend to agree with you,” said Boulder Valley Schools spokesman Briggs Gamblin when I put that proposition to him. Not that Gamblin expects the school’s long relationship with the Conference on World Affairs, which organized the panel, to change. But he did say the district regrets some of the program’s content as well as the fact that attendance was required.
According to Gamblin, the district’s director of health services has concluded that the program included too many statements that kids were going to have sex and drugs no matter what, that the content “was offensive and alienating to kids who don’t engage in these behaviors” and that an answer to a student who asked about abstinence “was thoughtless and offensive.”
True, true and true. But let’s not forget what else is true: The program encouraged teenagers to break laws regarding drugs and underage drinking; it sought to undermine religious teachings undoubtedly held by some students; it promoted a risky lifestyle; and it included moments that were unbelievably crass.
The Conference on World Affairs is standing by its program, by the way. Its statement, signed by conference director Jim Palmer and other officials, actually praised the panel for speaking “candidly and sensibly to the high school audience.”
At one point that day, a student asked “why people 11 and 12 and younger were having sex.” A panelist quickly blamed the media, bad parenting and “probably a lack of the ability to attend educational panels like this.”
Was he serious, or was the entire event a practical joke?
Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountain
News.com.
Sickening
Posted by John on May 18, 2007 06:20 AMWelcome to the real world
Posted by on May 18, 2007 06:33 AMJust when you think schools can't sink any lower.
I hope the school sent home instructions for the parents to put their girls on the pill and buy lots of condems for both girls and boys.Also let the parents know their children have been instructed to drink and do drugs.
Mr. Carroll, I urge you to name the High School so people can be on the guard when the students start drinking and driving. Doing drugs and driving also.
For every student that gets pregnant,a sexually transmitted disease,addicted to drugs or alcohol,gets killed or kills someone else driving while impaired, should sue the school and The organization who held the assembly.
Posted by Can I get an AMEN! on May 18, 2007 07:33 AMTypical liberal agenda. Teacher's unions and administrators whine because requiring English proficiency is an unfunded mandate to which they don't have the inclination, time or money to be bothered doing. But then you hear about this.
What a hosed up world in Boulder due to whacky, me-centric thinking.
Posted by raoul on May 18, 2007 07:41 AMSlouching toward Boulder. It's Boulder! What else would you expect from "progressive" secular humanism? By the way, "progressive" in that they are progressing to/have arrived at "total freedom" and rampant decadence.
Posted by CC on May 18, 2007 08:26 AMAs a self proclaimed liberal/progressive, I find it offensive that people think this is part of a "liberal agenda." My liberal friends and I certainly do NOT want our kids engaging in rampant sex and drug experimentation. We want to have honest conversations with them, sure - but this panel was WAY out of line. And if my kids went to BHS, I would be in the administration's collective face right now. This panel was reckless and destructive, and encouraged dangerous behavior.
Posted by DM on May 18, 2007 09:40 AMDM, I agree with you. This is not a liberal or conservative issue. This is just another outrageous and dangerous piece of trash our schools are feeding our kids.
I guess it didn't occur to the assinine principal that he allowed a group to come into a public education school and tell young people to break the law by using drugs and drinking underage.Also telling kids its okay to have sex with anyone you want is a gross injustice to parents and children everywhere.
I didn't hear any mention of birth control,condems,sexually transmitted diseases,drinking and being high while driving. They were told just do whatever you want ,but do it appropiately.This is insane.
I don't even think the parents knew what went on at this assembly.
I have already contacted the Superintendent of Boulder Schools, Fox News,here and national,Channel 4 news,and Bill O'Reilly.
We need to get the word out that this organization called The Conference on World Affairs is a fraud and very dangerous to our children.
If you can contact more news outlets and news channels to get the word out on this group,please do. We must stop this group from ever stepping a foot in any school ever again.
Posted by Can I get an AMEN! on May 18, 2007 10:00 AMI find this piece poorly written and confusing, since it starts in the middle and doesn't tell you what school or event this was taking place at.
Still, this should not be used as a slur against the "liberal agenda", because this charade is not part of the progressive mainstream.
Responsible organizations that teach comprehensive sex education teach about abstinence as the only sure way to avoid the consequences of sexual activity, and how alcohol and drugs reduce one's ability to make responsible decisions about whether to have sex.
Posted by Yo Mamma on May 18, 2007 11:16 AMThe "facts" as presented, sound too incredible to believe. And we are given no context in which to properly understand the quotes. That's SOP for talk radio, but the RMN? C'mon.
Posted by anderson on May 18, 2007 12:09 PMAnderson, you fool. Go to KHOW 630 website, Kaplis and Silverman show and you can download the entire tape of this charade. Judge for yourself.
Posted by RU Serious on May 18, 2007 12:37 PMFor those self-professed liberals, this IS the product of your secular "hey, whatever feels good, who am I to judge" mindset. Face up to it.
Posted by CC on May 18, 2007 12:43 PMThen maybe you can post a link, j,ass. And are you too stupid to comprehend my question about context? God forbid that anyone would question anything in media.
Posted by anderson on May 18, 2007 12:44 PMYesterday afternoon Kaplis and Silverman interviewed live on the air the Supt. of Boulder Schools and the President of Board of Ed. He was stuttering and unable, although he tried, to justify it. Kept hiding behind the "it was a program of the Conference on World Affairs" which is put on by CU.
The Board President, to her credit, did admit that some of it was inappropriate, but all she was willing to say is we will apologize.
My point is that the administrators of any public school had damn well better know the nature and content of any program that they are requiring students to attend. Obviously, this did not occur. They seem to have been blindsided and that is a failure of the administration of Boulder H.S. and the central administration of the district.
Their excuses are mealy mouthed at best and they are failing to take responsibility.
I hope that Dan and Craig keep their feet to the fire. They deserve it. This was a disgrace.
Posted by Skeezix on May 18, 2007 12:45 PMJudge the context for yourself, you tool. Since you are too stupid to Google KHOW yourself, here you go.
http://2005.khow.com/pages/shows-caplis_silverman.html?feed=119776&article=2139028
Posted by RU Serious on May 18, 2007 12:49 PMThanks, asshole, for your contribution to the discussion at hand.
Posted by anderson on May 18, 2007 12:53 PMAnderson
While I started this name calling episode ( I apologize for that), your obvious antipathy towards anything Vincent Carrol may write without checking into it yourself is the reason for my shot at you. The context is something that you can't fit into a column of this length. You really need to hear it. Maybe you were unaware that the tape was posted online.
You know, Vince just MAY be right about this. That is why I suggested you should judge the context for yourself. You won't listen to anybody else's opinion that differs from your own anyway.
This issue shouldn't be a partisan issue. If you believe that an "anything goes" attitude towards high school age sexuality is the message we should be sending kids in public schools, then you will be disagreeing with MOST parents. Listen to it and judge for yourself.
While I certainly have issues with a lot of Vince's editorial stands, I believe he is correct on this one.
Posted by RU Serious on May 18, 2007 01:09 PMThanks. No, I don't have antipathy toward anything Carroll writes. Not in the least. I was just asking what I thought was a natural question. No, I didn't know there was a audiotape on-line. I do have a general antipathy toward talk radio and it's not a source I would normally look to for anything, least of all credible news. When I said the facts are too incredible, I was saying, on their face, this is offensive, can this really be? Although it may be difficult, as you say, to provide the full context in his column, I'm just suspicious whenever someone throws quotes at me without context, especially when they suggest something really outrageous. That's a common talk radio trick.
Posted by anderson on May 18, 2007 01:23 PMI lived in Boulder for 40 years and just recently escaped. This whole episode is sickening. The town has been on a path to implosion for years. I had a sociology class from the founder of the World Affairs Conference, Howard Higman. He was nothing but a red faced, alcoholic, co-ed-bedding fool who was the "protoge" of Helen Fischer and her husband who took him to a Communist conclave in Italy, among other venues. All of it is a hollow joke. I'll leave it to others to describe his much worshiped wife.
Posted by Patrick on May 19, 2007 09:15 AMJust another example of stylish and trendy progressive ideas being forced upon a captive audience of young and impressionable minds.
This is a glaring example of the need for choice and competition in public education.
Posted by Get Real on May 19, 2007 11:39 AMI don't accept the thesis that this isn't a partisan issue.
Conservatives sometimes send irresponsible messages. We conservatives need to take responsibility for them. Progressives sometimes send messages like this. Progressives may not have planned this, but you created a political/social environment where it is much more likely to happen. Everyone knows that the religious right is opposed to this kind of thing. It is not obvious to me and it is not obvious to many others that liberals disapprove of this.
I eagerly wait for responses from progressives figures to see which side they take.
I also eagerly wait to see what school officials do about the teacher who permitted students to remain and what CU does about officials who paid honorariums to those who counseled students to break the law.
It is a sobering thought to realize that a student who walked out on this would have been a truant.
I confess to a sneaking satisfaction that this is now a public issue. I can think of no better advertisement for vouchers. We know about this because it was a very public forum. What is going on in less public forums that we would be equally appalled by?
Posted by Yaakov Watkins on May 20, 2007 08:14 PMAny Teacher or person who worked for the school should have stood up and said enough is enough.They should have stop the conference and removed the students at once.The principal should be fired and the teachers that were there be reprimanded at once.
A transcript of the conference that was tape recorded and statements from the school personnel should be sent home in a letter to all parents . Maybe the parents can undo the damage these morons and pathetic excuses of human beings caused.
Schools should stop outside groups from coming in and shoving their agendas down our kids throats. The kids should be in the classroom learning,not in assembly's held captive by idiots with an agenda.
Posted by Can I get an AMEN! on May 21, 2007 08:18 AMI can hardly wait to see his comments on subjects he has personal experience with such as homosexuality and pedophilia.
Posted by Mark on May 21, 2007 09:36 AMUnfortunately the practice of tying federal educational funding to teaching abstinence only sex ed has left our schools with little choice if they want to adequately prepare our students for adulthood. With 95% of our kids becoming sexually active before marriage and with the average age of first sexual encounter at 15, it's high time that we get back to being responsible for the well-being of all of our kids and leave the religious dogma for Sundays.
Posted by jay on May 21, 2007 02:38 PMJust say NO to monopolistic Liberal reeducation camps known as public education. Families should not have to pay for their kids education twice in order to get choice.
Posted by Hogar De Vuelta (العودة) on September 21, 2007 09:49 AM