.bmp)
.bmp)
A Florida pastor says a public school superintendent in St. Lucie County has purposely kept parents from finding out about the sexually graphic nature of sex-education curriculum for the district.The school board in St. Lucie County, Florida will hold a public forum Saturday, December 8, on the proposed sex-ed curriculum called "Get Real About AIDS." But Pastor Brian Longworth, associate pastor of Covenant Tabernacle World Outreach Center in Port St. Lucie, says the public forum is not being advertised or promoted. He believes superintendent Michael Lannon is hiding the curriculum's content from parents because of its sexually graphic nature, which Lannon maintains is meant to promote abstinence. Pastor Longworth alleges the educator is "not being honest with people" about the program material."Superintendent Lannon is presenting this curriculum as an abstinence curriculum," he says. "However, this curriculum mentions condoms and contraception 210 times to only 17 times that it mentions abstinence. Only once does it mention abstinence without immediately following up with a reference to condoms or contraception."Pastor Longworth wonders if the curriculum is so good, why it is being kept from parents. He says if the school district thinks that highly of the curriculum, district officials should be proud and stand up and say it is a condom-based curriculum."He's being deceptive, trying to trick parents into thinking that this is something that they will like, and not releasing the curriculum in time for them to review it."Longworth says parents have a right to know what their children are being taught in the public schools. Through his church's website, the group Youth for America-of which the pastor is a co-founder-has gathered more than 3,750 petitions in opposition to the sex-ed curriculum. According to the website for Advocates for Youth-an organization that believes abstinence-only sex-ed programs place the health and safety of young people at risk-the goal of "Get Real About AIDS" is "to encourage [youth who choose to have sex] to abstain from drug use, to use condoms consistently and correctly, practice monogamy, and get tested for HIV.As in the days of Noah.....
