Canadian High School Student Challenges Abstinence 'Education'

EDMONTON, Alberta—Many current adult performers are familiar with the crap that passes for "sex education" in many of America's public schools, but a recently graduated Canadian high school student and her mother are fighting back—and they've managed to attract the interest of the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The Edmonton Public School District requires its high school seniors to take a sex education course called "CALM," although under Section 11 of Alberta's Human Rights Act, parents are notified in advance that their children are scheduled to attend the program (as well as programs teaching about sexual orientation and religion), and they have the right to exempt their children from such classes. But Emily Dawson, then 17 and a senior at McNally High School, had enrolled in Career and Life Management, a summer course—and since she hadn't previously attended the CALM program, she was asked to do so. It's mandatory to complete the two-day course for graduation unless her parents opt her out—but her mother, Kathy, who supports sex education, gave the school permission to enroll Emily in the class. And that's when the trouble started. According to the Edmonton Journal, Emily texted her mom, an agnostic, that the class was being taught by an anti-abortion activist from the Pregnancy Care Center, a Springfield, Missouri-based religious anti-abortion organization which gives abstinence "education" to 60 Edmonton-area junior and senior high schools each year. "She [the teacher] did a lot of slut-shaming to the women, and pointed out the guys as horn-dogs," Emily told the Journal. "She really ridiculed single-parent families, she made it sound like they all give birth to juvenile delinquents." After Kathy heard her daughter's report on what happened in the CALM class, she asked to have Emily excused from the following day's lecture—only to be told that "there was no way her child could skip the class without academic penalty." In other words, without attending the second day of the course, Emily would not graduate. At that point, Kathy insisted on attending that second day of class herself, and while she admitted that there was no mention of "God" or "Jesus" during the class, "all the arguments in favour of chastity until marriage or against divorce and abortion were deeply rooted in Christian doctrine." While it's unclear just which of these claims were taught in Edmonton's CALM program, Kathy Dawson's complaint to the Alberta Human Rights Commission alleges that "the presenter taught students that 60 percent of boys carry the HPV sexually transmitted infection under their fingernails, that gonorrhea can kill you in three days, that girls should dress modestly to avoid inflaming boys." Also, as Tara Culp-Ressler pointed out on the ThinkProgress.com website, "These courses typically tell students that sex will make them dirty, and drive that point home with exercises that compare sexually active individuals with chewed up gum, dirty chocolate, and spit." "It’s values-based sex ed and all the values are evangelical values," Kathy stated. "It’s not even mainstream Christianity. I’m not against abstinence. But I think the message is diminished when it’s surrounded by misinformation and fear." Even the Edmonton Journal editorialized in favor on the Dawsons' position. "It’s absurd. CALM isn’t religion class," wrote Paula Simons of the Journal. "That’s not what parents sign up for. Sex education in our local public schools should be delivered in a scientific, non-judgmental way, by qualified professionals, not outsourced to an American-based pro-life lobby group. "Emily and Kathy Dawson have inspired an important public debate about the nature of our public schools. They deserve our thanks for their courage in speaking out."