High school’s ‘oppression and privilege’ slideshow links to teen sex ed website

(The Daily Signal) Tenth graders at a Missouri high school last week had to watch a slideshow on “oppression and privilege” that appeared to violate state law by using information from a Planned Parenthood affiliate that lists abortion clinics on its website.

A Planned Parenthood affiliate’s website tells teens about “porn literacy” and “hookups” for casual sex.

The class of sophomores at Webster Groves High School near St. Louis watched a slideshow titled “Being an Ally,” which listed so-called categories of oppression as “racial,” “class,” “gender,” “sexual orientation,” “religion.” ,” and “immigration status.”

“It is wrong to point out that different categories of people are inherently oppressors or oppressed,” said the mother of a student, who provided a video of the performance to The Daily Signal.

“This rhetoric is inherently divisive and creates inappropriate feelings of guilt or victimhood,” said the mother, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her son’s privacy.

In apparent violation of Missouri state law of Webster Groves School Districtat the end of Oct. 18 slideshows include barcodes and links to the website for Teen Health Source, a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood Toronto.

Teen Health Source calls itself a “sexual health information service run for and by young people.” Categories listed on its website include “Birth Control,” “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation,” “Pleasure,” “Pregnancy,” “Puberty & The Body,” “Sex,” and “STIs” [sexually transmitted infections].

The performance in the 10th grade did not appear in the ordinary for the Webster Groves School Districtwhich enrolls nearly 4,500 students in the suburbs of St. Louis.

In September, a parent read transgender-promoting children’s book “I Am Jazz” in a second grade class without the school notifying the other parents first.

Beginning in kindergarten, students in the school district learn to “examine issues of social justice and equity within an anti-bias framework.”

Two school employees, counselor Cassie Aschinger and social worker Anne Gibbs, showed a “privilege and oppression” slideshow to 10th-graders, a video that was later uploaded to an online learning platform.

“Being an ally means using your privilege to help support people who face oppression that you might not experience yourself,” Aschinger told the 16- and 17-year-old students. , according to the video.

The presentation includes tips on listening to the oppressed by navigating factors such as “gender pronouns.”

Gibbs told students that “allies” have to go through “unlearning,” which “involves questioning and rejecting oppressive beliefs that you may have held for a long time.”

“As you learn about your privilege as a non-oppressed person, try to be honest with yourself about how that privilege has affected your life and who you are,” Gibbs told the students, according to video posted below.

Aschinger and Gibbs did not respond to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment for this report. The Webster Groves School District also did not respond.

The mother who leaked the slideshow video to The Daily Signal A public school says children shouldn’t be asked to check their privilege.

“The district knows that many parents disagree and continues to push these lessons,” she said.

The “About” page for Teen Health Source, which linked to the presentation to 10th-graders, says it’s “nonjudgmental, gender-positive, pro-choice, and inclusive.”

Missouri law requires school districts to inform parents of the “primary content of the district or school’s human sexuality education to be provided to the student.” It also specifies the “parent’s right to remove the student from any part of the district’s or school’s human sexuality education.”

However, the school mom who saw and leaked the video of the slideshow said she was not notified in advance.

In a letter to the state association of school boards, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey advocated a model resolution where school districts can pledge to “uphold Missouri’s law on the teaching of human sexuality in public schools.”

Bailey’s draft resolution for the Missouri School Boards’ Association states that “issues of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression are inextricably linked to human sexuality.”

On its website, Teen Health Source defines abortion as “a safe medical procedure that ends a pregnancy.” The website also states that medical abortions “use medication to stop the growth of a pregnancy and then expel the pregnancy tissue from the uterus” and a surgical abortion “remove[s] the pregnancy tissue from the uterus.”

“Pregnancy tissue” seems to be a euphemism for “unborn baby” or “fetus,” words that don’t appear there in the context of abortion.

The Teen Health Source website has descriptions and links to abortion clinics in the Toronto area. It does not list any pro-life pregnancy resource centers.

Teen Health Source also suggests “transgender care” clinics that offer sterilizing minors hormone therapy and referrals for transgender surgery. Other services listed include support for teenagers who want help “coming out” or “questioning gender identity and/or sexual orientation.”

Some clinics recommended to Teen Health Source’s audience, which spans ages 13 to 19, provide HIV testing, birth control prescriptions, and abortion pills.

A section of the website, called “Navigating sex and gender dysphoria,” defines gender dysphoria as “a term for stress, conflict, or negative feelings that people may feel in relation to their body, gender or how others see their gender.” It defines gender euphoria” as “a term for the joy, comfort or connection that people may feel in relation to their body, gender or how others perceive their gender.”

A page on gender dysphoria advises young people who are questioning their gender how to have “affirming sex” and remind themselves that their “body and gender are wonderful and the gender and gender you say you are” [sic].

A post on “porn literacy” tells teenagers: “Porn can be good for inspiration.” …

Read the full Daily Signal article here.