Print 
PDF
On Monday, parents traveled to Olympia, Washington to testify against a bill that creates a barrier between school districts and parents.
As parents began to explain why the bill is dangerous, they were cut off by the bang of a gavel.
This story is being repeated in public schools across the country.
Be informed.
This morning, on our live radio program, I'll be talking more about this issue in public schools, and updating on the latest from the impeachment proceedings. The Senate may vote to acquit the president today---or they may vote to have witnesses, prolonging the impeachment in hopes of discovering new reasons to impeach the president. You may join me on the radio from anywhere in the world. Here's how.
State seeks to undermine parental authority.
Washington State House Bill 2288 states that "any school district in the state may enter into agreements with health care providers to establish school-based health centers for the provision of services exclusively to district students, employees and employee's dependents...[in] the form of a lease of district property to private or public healthcare providers."
The bill will put these health centers on high school and middle school campuses throughout the state.
Kim Wendt, who along with a good number of parents, traveled to Olympia Monday to speak against the bill at a legislative hearing.
She says,
"It doesn't seem like a bad thing, until you understand...that parents, starting at the age of 13, have been completely cut out from knowing what their children are receiving in their medical and mental healthcare.
She was referring to a new law that went into effect this year that keeps "sensitive conditions"---including anxiety and depression, gender dysphoria, STDs, and reproductive issues---confidential between health care providers and patients over the age of 13, while parents' insurance still covers this care, parents only find out what conditions are being treated if the children elect to share the information with them.
Wendt told KIRO radio talk show host Dori Monson, "We don't even know why we're being billed---you just get sent a blank bill."
She says, "It's a movement to fundamentally change how we view sex and interrelate with one another."
The state shuts down the parents.
Wendt and a group of concerned parents who have together organized a group called Informed Parents of Washington, went to Olympia last Monday to speak at the public hearing on the bill.
This is a link to Concerned Parents of Washington's Facebook page.
They had hoped to tell the "public servants" why they oppose the bill.
The parents believe that,
"The danger of the bill... creates a barrier where the school district cannot be sued by the parents if something goes wrong because everything that happens in the clinic is the responsibility of the clinic, not the school. And it also opens up the funding stream for the school district and the insurance to be billed to the parents---and they won't even know what the services are that their children are getting during their lunch hours."
After listening to the legislators extol the bill's merits, the parents gave testimony as to why they found the bill dangerous.
However, the parent's words were suddenly cut off by the bang of a gavel. The state was having no more of it.
The state said the parents were being "inflammatory."
Wendt and the parent group says they didn't make the law---and they're just trying to get other parents to understand that "they're [the state] slowly taking away, law by law, our ability to be the parents to our own children, and then just making us their personal ATMs."
I'm reminded of something Moses wrote to the people of God in Deuteronomy as he warned of the dangers of losing their children to other influences (28:32). He said,
"Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand."
In verse 41, the great lawgiver warns, "You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity."
This effort to capture children and remove them from their parent's authority is not isolated to Washington State. There is a move in a number of states to pass similar laws to achieve similar ends.
Wendt believes what Washington State is doing is part of a worldwide agenda to change society through sex education.
I agree.
For example: While Washington State has not suggested they will partner with Planned Parenthood to run the in-school clinics, there is every reason to believe they will---unless they are stopped by parents and clear thinking citizens.
Similar clinics in California have already partnered with Planned Parenthood.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Planned Parenthood will be opening 50 new in-school clinics in the LA School District this year.
The Times tells a story of how well this partnership works:
"A high school senior decided recently that she wants to become sexually active with her boyfriend. But she's not comfortable talking to her parents about birth control and would be unable to get a doctor's appointment on her own. Instead, she walked over to the new well-being center at school during a free period."
"It was easy," the LA Times says, "Planned Parenthood runs a sexual healthcare clinic" at her high school.
The Times says the centers include "reproductive health clinics where students can get birth control pills and condoms, tests, and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, emergency contraception such as Plan B, and pregnancy testing and referrals..."
Don't believe for a moment that "referrals" will include any suggestion of a Crises Pregnancy Center or other pro-life organization. The little girls who get pregnant will, essentially, be shuttled to the nearest abortion shop.
And typically parents are kept out of the loop.
The centers also offer gender dysphoria counseling. The Times says, "About 30% of LA County high school students report feeling chronic sadness or hopelessness." The paper notes that these centers, run by PP, can help with this as well.
Their example of how the centers can be of help involves a student who asked this week for help in formulating "a plan for her to 'come out' to her parents..."
What can a parent do?
1. Be informed. Know what's going on in your child's public school and get involved. Be a voice. Be a force of influence.
2. Consider removing your child from public education. I understand the challenges, time, finances, etc. But think about it, and pray about it.
3. Do what Moses told God's people to do:
Deuteronomy 6:5-9 "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Pro-Active.