A conservative religious group of parents from the Anoka-Hennepin school district are demanding that schools in that Minnesota suburb, northwest of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, teach students about ex-gay and ex-transgender therapy, teach children that homosexual sex has “medical consequences,” and teach them about “Gay-Related Immunity Deficiency Syndrome.” GRIDS is the name given in 1982 to what is now referred to as AIDS, and has been since 1986.
The parents group, named “PALS,” the Parents Action League, is fighting for the school district to keep its so-called “neutrality” policy, that demands no mention of homosexuality or any LGBT issues — a clear violation of students’ First Amendment rights.
“Brian Lindquist and Mike Skaalerud presented a resolution and list of demands that the Parents Action League wants to the school board to fulfill including incorporating “ex-gay†therapy into the school resources,” Andy Birkey in the Daily Planet reported:
Here’s the full resolution as recited by Lindquist and Skaalerud:
Whereas Anoka Hennepin District 11 has devoted a special section on their website to GLBT issues, training and awareness.
And whereas the theme of school safety is being used as a pretext to advance a much broader agenda, the legitimization of homosexuality and related conduct to impressionable school children
And whereas the Anoka Hennepin school board is considering removing the protective sexual orientation curriculum policy, an action that undermines the academic focus of this district and open the door to pro-homosexual and related conduct materials in the school curriculum thereby exposing students to concepts hostile to there religious faith and/or moral conviction
And whereas school officials would be liable for violating parental rights by subjecting a child to homosexual and related conduct indoctrination
And whereas the Supreme Court in Meyer v Nebraska has held that parents’ right to direct the moral upbringing and education of their children is one of the most fundamental of all rights and a failure to abide by parental rights can result in liability for damages both the the school district
Whereas schools may face liability for intentional and negligent instruction of students who rely upon false and misleading information about sexual conduct and are subsequently harmed.
Whereas as superintendent Dennis Carlson and prevention coordinator Barry Scanlon went on a listening tour visiting the nine GSA clubs in the district January thru May of 2011 and have not conducted a listening tour with students of faith, moral conviction, ex-homosexuals and ex-transgenders
And whereas district 11 has ordered copies of pro-homosexual video “It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying and Living a Life Worth Living,†edited by Dan Savage for secondary media centers
And whereas legal liability exists for the tort of negligence if it is proved that homosexual activists and organizations were granted access to students under responsibility and that students suffered physical or mental harm.
Therefore be it resolved the Parents Action League in Anoka Hennepin School District 11 demands the following ten actions be taken by our shcool board.
1. A new division within the student support services and a special section on the District 11 website devoted to student of fiath, moral conviction, ex-homosexuals and ex-transgenders.
2. A listening tour by Superintendent Denny Carlson and district prevention coordinator Barry Scanlon with students of faith, moral conviction, ex-homosexuals, and ex-transgenders.
3. That District 11 administrators and staff work closely with pro-family and ex-homosexual and ex-transgender organizations to provide ongoing training to school counselors, school nurses, social workers, school psychologists, prevention specialists, student learning advocates and a number of secondary principals and principals.
4. Provide professional development opportunities in which philosophical, pedogogical, and political assumptions of GLBT advocacy are critically examined.
5. Provide webinars, seminars for all staff on over-coming sexual disorders
6. Provide training on bullying and suicide that protects all students.
7. Provide the history of gay-related immune deficiencies and acquired immune deficiencies and the medical consequences of homosexual acts.
8. That all health classes that address homosexuality be required to provide up-to-date information from the CDC on sexually transmitted diseases and HIV among the groups the CDC designates as men who have sex with men.
9. Provide the following pro-family, ex-homosexual, ex-transgender information and websites to all counselors, school psychologists
classroom teachers [the list was submitted to the board and not spoken at the meeting]
10. Provide pro-family, ex-homosexual and ex-transgender videos to secondary media centers.
[ Emphasis mine.]
Birkey offers an extensive and thorough report of the meeting, and I urge you to read it in full, but I’ll draw your attention to these two startling passages:
Barb Anderson has been the spokesperson for the group. She’s also a researcher for the Minnesota Family Council and has accused LGBT advocacy groups of being responsible for bullying and suicides in the district.
At Monday night’s board meeting, she accused the LGBT community of indoctrinating the students of the district.
“On Dec. 25th, on the front page of the Star Tribune, the pro-homosexual media once again held up the St. Paul school district as an example of how the districts should deal with GLBT issues. In St. Paul, the fear of the gay agenda coming into the schools is now a thing of the past. Well, that’s exactly right. There’s no reason to fear it coming in because its so entrenched in their schools that parents have given up all hope of getting it out.â€
She said that the “gay agenda†was trying to force Christians into the closet.
…
Tiffany Strabala blasted the Anoka Hennepin teachers union head Julie Blaha for saying that students are not “controversial issues†and that identities should not the subject of policies like the neutrality policy.
“The idea that same-sex attraction and volitional same sex acts constitute an identity that should be valued is a subjective and arguable belief it is not a fact,†said Strabala.
The Anoka-Hennepin school district, which lies in Representative Michele Bachmann’s congressional district, has one of the highest student suicide rates in the country. Justin Aaberg is one notable student from the Anoka-Hennepin school district who succumbed to suicide, at the age of 15. Others include Lance Lundsten, and Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz.
The district has been designated a “suicide contagion area.” Shockingly, despite all evidence to the contrary, the school district claims six, not nine suicides from within its district were recorded over a two-year period, and now even rejects the term “suicide contagion area” entirely, actually apologizing for having used it recently.
Studies prove that youth and teens who live in conservative regions are far more-likely to attempt suicide than those who do not.