High School Students Given Survey On How They Lost Their Virginity

Click to read original article from World Net Daily

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

A team of lawyers who advocate for parental rights is working with parents whose children attend Ventura High School in Southern California to raise a formal objection after teachers had students fill out a survey on sex with questions such as "Are you sexually active" and "If not, why not?"
Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, said the first step will be to file an administrative complaint.
"The parents have tried to reason with school officials about this, but so far administrators have failed to grasp that giving the students this survey without prior written notice and consent was illegal," he said.
The survey was reported in the student Cougar Press in December. The report apparently was not included as part of the paper's ordinary online presentation, officials said, but was obtained by a parent who posted the pages only for other parents to see.


The newspaper, in addition to the sex survey results, included a page of photographs of students revealing what songs put them "in the mood," a sex crossword puzzle and other advocacy for being sexually active.
A school spokesman said officials could not comment.

Dacus told WND schools should know that parents need to be able to trust their schools for the education system to work.
"When parental trust is breached, then school districts end up losing that participation," he said. "If school districts … want to be successful, they have to respect the rights of parents and not be caught doing things behind the backs of parents."
He said the primary issue is that a state law forbids such sex surveys without parental knowledge.

He said the problem only was revealed because a student took a copy home, in violation of instructions she was given, and some parents found out.
The questions included:

• What grade were you in when you lost your virginity?
  
  
• What is your overall number of partners you have engaged in sexual activity with?
  
  
• Were you sober the first time you engaged in sexual activity?"
  
  
• Have you or your partner ever had an abortion?"
  
  
• How often do you engage in sexual activity?"
  
  
• Are your parents aware of your sexual activity?

Pacific Justice said that according to the newspaper, the survey was given to 1,000 students in every grade in high school. The organization said it was administered with the knowledge and assistance of the high school during second class period and had no relationship to any subject the students were enrolled in at that time.
"The school allowed the use of instructional time to administer the survey and the teachers then collected it and handed it over to the newspaper," said parent John Silva, who obtained a copy of the newspaper from a concerned student.
"Because the sex survey was given without prior written notice and subsequent written consent by the parents or guardians, the school violated the law," said Kevin Snider, chief counsel of the Pacific Justice Institute.
"By facilitating the newspaper to conduct the survey, we feel the school was complicit in violating the rights of the parents," said Julie Wilson, a parent of a high school student.

Obama Administration To Hold Meeting with Atheist Anti-Religion Hate Groups

Click to read original Article from Christian News Wire

MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 26 /Christian Newswire/ -- The advocacy group In God We Trust today ripped the Obama administration for meeting to plot political strategy with 60 atheist activists representing organizations comprising the Secular Coalition of America.

"It is one thing for Administration to meet with groups of varying viewpoints, but it is quite another for a senior official to sit down with activists representing some of the most hate-filled, anti-religious groups in the nation," says In God We Trust's Chairman Bishop Council Nedd.

Tina Tchen, the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, will meet with representatives from groups that comprise the Coalition. The Coalition's sponsoring organization's include American Atheists, founded by Madalyn Murray O'Hare and the Freedom from Religion Foundation which is campaigning to stop the post office from issuing a stamp honoring Mother Theresa.

"President Obama seems to believe that it is a good idea to have a key senior aide plan political strategy with people who believe faith in God is a disease," Nedd says. "Some of the people in this coalition believe the world would be better off with no Christians and no Jews and they aren't shy about it. The fact that this meeting is happening at all is an affront to the vast majority of people of all faiths who believe in God."

According to the Freedom from Religion Foundation's President Dan Barker, "Christianity is an enemy to humanity, and the antithesis of freedom." (Dan Barker, Freedom from Religion Foundation Co-President in Losing Faith in Faith Page 255) and "Religion also poses a danger to mental health, damaging self-respect, personal responsibility, and clarity of thought." (Losing Faith in Faith Page 217.)

Madalyn Murray OHare declared, "Ours is a time when successful struggle against this reactionary philosophy requires more than a petulant argument over the authorship of the Gospels, more than a negative attack on the totalitarian and monolithic authoritarianism of conventional religion, but rather an aggressive action program to spread the positive philosophy of materialism." (Source: American Atheists website.)

"The President should tell the American people whether he believes these groups' hate-filled views to be 'mainstream' and worthy of his supposedly inclusive administration," Nedd says.

In God We Trust is a national political advocacy organization with over 70,000 supporters of various faiths. Council Nedd is a traditional Episcopal priest and serves as the Bishop of the Chesapeake and Northeast for the Episcopal Missionary Church. On the Internet: www.InGodWeTrustUSA.org.

2 College Students Held at Gun Point While Simulating Homeless Experience

Click to read original Article at WISTV.com

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Paul Bowers and Matt Wolfer are seniors at the University of South Carolina. The pair wanted to take part in a unique social experiment by becoming homeless for one week.
On Friday night, they tried out a test run. However, they got more than they bargained for on the test.
"One of the guys pulled out a shotgun," said Bowers.
Bowers and Wolfer say they were robbed shortly before dozing off to sleep underneath a gazebo in the park by the corner of Blossom Street and Pickens.
They expected to experience what a night in the cold would feel like, but what they experienced was much more severe.
"These three guys come in through that gate down there," said Bowers. "When they were in a few feet of the gazebo, one of them said something to the effect of 'What you got?'"
"Weren't quite sure what was going on until we saw the guns and realized more of their intent," said Wolfer.
That's when things quickly spiraled.
"He had it pointed at me at my chest," said Bowers, describing the suspect holding a gun to him. "They're asking for cell phones, wallets, we don't have anything."
"I heard Paul get slapped and then shoved," said Wolfer.
"Matt looked over and he got pistol whipped a couple times," said Bowers.
"At that point, they realized we really didn't have anything so they ran off," said Wolfer.
Since they didn't bring cell phones, it took a while before they were able to call police.
"What we experienced Friday night is something that happens all the time to homeless people," said Bowers.

Kentucky Middle School Student Suspended for Saying NO To Drugs!

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from Wave 3.com

JEFFERSONVILLE, IN (WAVE) - The parents of a Kentuckiana seventh grade student say their young daughter was suspended from school for doing exactly what she's been taught to do for years - to just say no to drugs.
The girl did not bring the prescription drug to her Jeffersonville, IN school, nor did she take it, but she admits that she touched it and in Greater Clark County Schools that is drug possession.  
Rachael Greer said it happened on Feb. 23 during fifth period gym class at River Valley Middle School when a girl walked into the locker room with a bag of pills.
"She was talking to another girl and me about them and she put one in my hand and I was like, ‘I don't want this,' so I put it back in the bag and I went to gym class," said Rachael.
The pills were the prescription ADHD drug, Adderall. Patty Greer, Rachael's mother, said she and her husband are proud of their daughter for turning down drugs, just like she's been taught for years by DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) instructors at school.
"I'm proud her conscience kicked in and she said, ‘No, I'm not taking this. Here you can have it back,'" Patty Greer said.
But just saying no didn't end the trouble for Rachael. During the next period, an assistant principal came and took Rachael out of class. It turned out the girl who originally had the pills and a few other students got caught. That's when the assistant principal gave Rachael a decision.
"We're suspending you for five days because it was in your hand," said Rachael.
After hearing the news, Patty Greer went to school officials.
"He said she wrote it down on a witness statement and she had told the truth, he said she was very, very honest and he said he was sorry he had to do it but it was school policy," said Patty Greer.
According to Greater Clark County Schools district policy, even a touch equals drug possession and a one week suspension.
"The fact of the matter is, there were drugs on school campus and it was handled, so there was a violation of our policy," said Martin Bell, COO of Greater Clark County Schools.
We wanted to know what would have happened if Rachael had told a teacher right away. Bell said the punishment would not have been any different. District officials say if they're not strict about drug policies no one will take them seriously.
"That's not a good policy," said Patty Greer. "We're teaching our kids if you say no to drugs you're going to get punished, it's not right."