Sex Education and the Religious Right

My 12 year old daughter came home from school yesterday and informed me that

"you can loose your virginity by pashing (kissing) some one"

WHAT THE!!!!

Call it good management or otherwise but my daughter already had 'that' talk and knew this to be a lie.

So I did what any parent would do when presented with this sort of information, I started researching what was going on at school.

Ulladulla High School has volunteers present to the children a program called Choices, Decisions, Outcomes (CDO) a so called "innovative, value based education program for adolescents encouraging responsible decision making regarding sexuality".


The young people were given a take home kit which included an appraisal card directing children to a web resource. All of this seems fairly tame but focused on the issue of teen pregnancy.

The web site is also partnered by an organization calling themselves RCA or Real Choices Australia a pro-life anti abortion organization.

RCA is a three letter acronym which in my opinion has been 'borrowed' from Reproductive Choices Australia… '[is] a coalition of organisations and individuals who are interested in ensuring that women’s reproductive rights are protected and enhanced in Australia'.

As I went about this research I also discovered that the program was delivered by the local Baptist Church. Their representative Mrs Rhonda Avasalu is a member of the Christian Democratic Party (The Fred Nile Group) and was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2007 Federal election. The Fred Nile Group are renowned for their homophobic, fanatical religious views, anti- abortion and anti- civil rights.

I find it very disturbing that my local public high school can continue to deliver such a program to its year seven student body, when a similar program was banned in June 2009 by the NSW Education department because of its links to the Fred Nile Group.

'An expert in sex education in schools, Associate Professor Anne Mitchell of La Trobe University, said it was entirely appropriate for children in years 5 and 6 to be taught about conception, pregnancy and life in the womb. Professor Mitchell states however "My problem would be if it's put in an ideological framework, if it's being used to influence people's thinking about abortion."

The program taught at Ulladulla High School needs to be brought to the attention of the NSW Department of Education and banned because like the other program it is linked to the Christina Democratic Party ( Fred Nile Group) and a known anti abortion group ( Life before Birth).

When I contacted the Dept of Eduction, I was advised that school principals have the discretion to endorse programs that "enrich learning".

Any assistance from the community on this issue would be appreciated and I urge any one with information to share it with the Minister for Education, myself or Ulladulla High School.