Parents to Austin ISD: “We Don’t Trust You”
Last night parents in Austin Independent School District (Austin ISD or AISD) spoke out strongly against the local government Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) for approving a dangerous sex education program for K-8. The SHAC approved “Rights, Respect, Responsibility” (3Rs), a program with dangerous material created by Advocates for Youth, a group strongly tied to Planned Parenthood. 3Rs undermines abstinence, encourages sexual behavior such as dry sex, mutual masturbation, and bathing together, refers students to Planned Parenthood instead of parents, and imposes the LGBT agenda on students beginning in Kindergarten.
Austin ISD parents showed up in force to speak out against the proposed change to the sex education program. Joanna Haywood, a mother in the district, presented a petition before the SHAC committee containing the signatures of over 1100 parents opposing the curriculum. As of this morning the petition has garnered over 1,200 signatures.
Caryl Ayala, a mother who taught in Austin ISD and spoke out against the proposed program at last night’s meeting, joined a Spanish petition against the 3Rs program. The petition has received nearly 300 signatures.
One parent of an Austin ISD kindergartener stated, “If this program is going to be so good and so needed, yet so controversial, why risk pushing it so fast onto the school district?”
A father pointed out the declining enrollment rates and budget shortfalls in the district and stated, “I think it’s disingenuous for the health education subcommittee to…say that you take diverse input, but nowhere on the list was parents…as someone who is in the school every week, I was never invited…AISD is struggling with trust with parents and this is a trust issue.”
One mother stated that she is very involved with her children’s school, attends PTA, checks every Austin ISD email, and listens to teleconferences, but was never made aware that the new curriculum was being considered until another parent informed her.
Another mother stated, “I was part of a conversation in which parents were asking what assurances we could have that material we found objectionable would be edited out of the final curriculum for use in AISD. The response from an AISD representative was, ‘Just trust us.’”
A mother of three children stated, “This programs seeks to indoctrinate our children in philosophies that go against our faith and our values, and AISD wants to do so without having previously informed us, and without giving us the opportunity to express what we do not agree with. We feel like this is an act of discrimination against us. I myself, after having spoken here at the SHAC before, was not invited to the parent focus group that you recently had for parent input… Our students deserve an appropriate curriculum that respects our values and does not sexualize them… AISD board members I hope that you look at the material before you approve it, but if it is approved, my three children are out of your school district.”
Nicole Hudgens, policy analyst for Texas Values who spoke at last night’s meeting, stated, “Parents in Austin ISD strongly feel their trust with the district has been violated. We stand with the parents of Austin ISD and call for the SHAC to completely remove the 3Rs from being used in any curriculum. We urge the SHAC and School Board to stop breaking trust with the parents and taxpayers of this district.”
Watch the Austin ISD SHAC meeting and parent testimonies here, here, and here.
About Texas Values
Texas Values is a nonprofit organization dedicated to standing for faith, family, and freedom in Texas. More information is available at txvalues.org.