New Jersey Family Policy Council

Len Deo (973) 781-1414	4/2/2008

Teen PEP Sex-Ed Curriculum Endangers Teens & Must Be Removed Immediately!

TRENTON: The New Family Policy Council (NJFPC) calls upon the Clearview Regional school district to immediately cease the teaching of the Teen PEP sex education curriculum to teens because it contains medically inaccurate, politicized information, and violates state core health curriculum standards. Although the Clearview school board has arranged for a committee of community members to review this program next year, that is an unacceptable timetable. Teens – right now – are being exposed to information that can endanger their health. Demetrios Stratis Esq. of the NJ Legal Resource Council (legal advisory arm of the NJFPC) who is representing district parents, has notified the superintendent of the Clearview high schools that “the interests of young, impressionable minds is at stake” and that “if the harmful messages in the Teen PEP Curriculum are not addressed, there is no alternative” [than to litigate]. Gregory Quinlan, Director of Government Affairs for NJ Family First (the legislative action arm of the NJFPC) and an ex-gay states; “The curriculum is wrought with medical inaccuracies, such as teaching that homosexuals are ‘born that way’. The data is exponential that they are not”. Quinlan stated “In addition, a major issue is the program is designed to teach that abstinence doesn’t work, which is diametrically opposite of the state’s core curriculum standards, which say that sex education must stress abstinence as the only sure way to avoid teen pregnancy and disease.” Len Deo, NJFPC Founder and President asks, “Why would any school district allow medically inaccurate information to be taught to our children for the sake of political ‘correctness’? For example, this curriculum teaches how to engage in anal sex. Anal sex in and of itself puts individuals at a higher risk for sexually transmitted disease, injury, and anal cancer, so why would we tell kids, ‘it’s OK as long a you use a condom’ and then teach them how to do it? When we teach our young people not to smoke because it places them at a higher risk for lung cancer, we don’t teach them to engage anyway with some form of ‘protection’ such as not inhaling! The same could be said for underage drinking, and for driving while intoxicated. Educators simply teach ‘don’t do it’. Why then, other than politics at the expense of our children’s health, would we compromise kid’s safety by teaching them it’s OK to engage in anal sex?” Aside from the problems with this curriculum, Deo concludes “parents are being denied the right to decide what their children are taught and that is an unacceptable breach of parental authority by the state.”
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