Duval County FL Moms 4 Liberty: violent images equating public health research with "grooming"?

 

It would be difficult to make things up that are either stranger or more repulsive than what's actually happening in the Jacksonville/Duval County FL area with respect to public education.

I'm not even sure if it's what they are doing that's more dangerous than how the right-wing is re-imagining the English language in a fashion that George Orwell predicted nearly eight decades ago.

A few cases in point: The Center for Disease Control's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which has been collecting data nationally since 2009 with no fanfare and little if any criticism because it presents some of the only coherent national data being collected regarding middle- and high-school students with respect to such issues as smoking, drug use, school safety, bullying, and ... yes ... sexual activity. It is given in two different forms -- one for middle-school students age 11-14 and one for high-school students age 15+.

Here's what's important to know about the YRBSS survey:

• Participation in the survey is optional for school districts in Florida, and there is no penalty in terms of Federal funding, etc., for opting out. Until very recently, 64 of the 69 districts did not participate.
• Parents in the five districts that do participate (which included Duval County Public School until just awhile back) are informed of the survey beforehand and offered the opportunity to opt their kids out.
• On the very first page of the survey, the instructions (see below) tell each student that she or he does not have to complete the survey or any question on the survey that makes them feel uncomfortable.

So let's get this straight: in order for any student to complete this survey, the district, the parents, and the student must ALL agree that they want to do it.

These points are important, because -- surprise, surprise -- once again the public is being lied to by the usual suspects.

Take Lloyd Brown of Eye on Jacksonville (please take him ... please), in his February 8, 2023 op-ed "Government groomers still at work." 

In a spare 19 sentences, Mr Brown manages to tell multiple lies by commission or omission.

Here's the first set:

Parents of children in government schools are mounting another campaign against the obsession the federal government has with the sex lives of children.

Since 2009, Duval County Public Schools have taken an annual survey of children, asking them very detailed questions about sex.

“How old were you when you had sexual intercourse for the first time?” it asks of children as young as 10.

This is really cleverly done. Mr Brown first notes that there is an annual survey of students "asking them very detailed questions about sex," and then he quotes a single question -- "“How old were you when you had sexual intercourse for the first time?”" -- and says "it asks of children as young as 10."

Here's how he palmed the card:

• The high school survey asks 8 questions about sex, but the middle school survey only asks 4. Those questions are limited to (1) have you had sex (if no, skip the next three questions); (2) if you had sex how old were you the first time; (3) how many partners have you had if you did have sex; and (4) if you did have sex did anybody use a condom? (You will notice that Mr Brown did not link to the actual surveys like I just did.)
• So, first, by making the word "survey" single rather than plural in the second sentence, Mr Brown cleverly implies that there is only one survey.
• He then manages to suggest the survey starts out asking 10 year-olds how they were when they first had sex without noting that a student who said s/he had never had sex would have skipped this question.
• By using 10 year olds  in his last sentence he manages to shade the truth -- there are very few 10 year olds in the 6th grade, although it's possible, and the only way they would even be seeing this survey is if their parents had decided not to opt them out.

He then quotes a parent (I imagine with the straight face) making one of the most ridiculous statements of all time:

“Children are growing up with their senses assaulted by all forms of sexual content in the media,” Kathleen Murray of CCDF told the board. She said the questions on the survey implant the subject of sex in a child’s mind and once seen could not be unseen.

Let's think about this. Children are constantly "assaulted by all forms of sexual content in the media" (which is true), but it's not that content but four questions on a paper survey that will "implant the subject of  sex in a child's mind and once seen could not be unseen." 

Seriously? Nobody broke out laughing at this? The woman could be a scriptwriter for SNL.

This is followed by another completely disingenuous sentence lovingly crafted by Mr Brown to obfuscate the truth:

But what does it have to do with educating children and what possible need does the federal government have for such private information about children, collected without parental input or oversight?

There are plenty of reasons for public health researcher need to know about bullying, cigarette smoking, drug use, suicide, sex, and etc., but it's that last clause that's so funny: "collected without parental input or oversight?"

What it really should have said is, "collected with parental permission," because THAT is the truth of the matter. The parents already have an absolute VETO on whether or not their kids actually see this survey or not. Sources among teachers in DCPS tell me that every year a parent or two calls to ask more specifics about that survey, and you know what happens? The teachers show the parents the survey, because it's not a secret. (How could it be? It's been online at the links above for 14 years.)

So if parents are not exercising that veto, we can only draw one of two conclusions: (1) either they approve of the survey; or (2) these parents are not half so involved in their children's education as they would like you to believe when they are rifling through teachers' desks looking for porn.

But back to Mr Brown, for just a moment longer, with this concluding gem:

Because of the government and the woke movement, children are bombarded with sex and race, rather than reading, writing, math and history.

Uh, Leroy, if the survey is such a damned evil plan by the "woke movement," how come you're just figuring this out 14 years later? And you're seriously going to tell me that four questions in middle school (three of which over 90% of them will skip) and eight questions to high school students (most of whom will see more sex in any two minutes of YouTubing or streaming Netflix than this survey contains) constitutes them being "bombarded with sex"?

Oh, but you want them to concentrate on "reading, writing, math and history."

That would be easier to do if the insane specter of Moms for Liberty with flamethrowers hadn't made the school district so cautious that it felt it necessary to pull 176 books off school library shelves that -- strangely enough -- almost all dealt with the history of people of color?

Kinda hard to teach history OR reading when you eliminate Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, Rosa Parks, and Sonia Sotomayor, isn't it?

As far as children being "bombarded with ... race," Mr Brown, it probably just escaped you for the moment that 62.6% of the kids enrolled in Florida public schools are students of color. In 2000 white children were 53.3% of all students; today that's dropped to 37.4%

Funny how you can't tell that when Governor DeSantis uses parents and kids as a backdrop:

And THAT is really what this is all about.

(By the way, if you're curious about what the survey actually says about Florida schoolchildren, it says that they are pretty much like the rest of the nation, except:

• They are more likely to feel unsafe at school than the national average;
• The high school students are less likely to use birth control than the national average;
• They are less likely to consume fruits, vegetables, and milk on a daily basis than the national average;
• They are less likely to be physically active and more likely to watch 3+ hours per day of television than the national average'
• They are more likely to report they've never been to the dentist in their lives than the national average.

Curiously, fixing THOSE problems rather than emptying school library shelves might be a better basis for for fixing Florida's school and supporting its young people. But safety, birth control, nutrition, physical activity, and dental care are not nearly as sexy as pretending that the federal government is grooming your children, right, Mr. Brown?)