WORCESTER – Christ the King Parish and parishioners are spreading a message Bishop McManus sent out – encouraging parents to opt their children out of the Worcester Public Schools’ controversial sex education program.
At least two couples’ lawn signs promoting opting out were stolen and one removed theirs for the neighbors’ sake. The signs say: “Opt out of pornographic sex education. Text Worcester to 87891” (Message & Data Rates May Apply. Text HELP for help, or “STOP” to Opt Out of Messaging Service. Link to Privacy Policy: https://eztxt.net/p7Gw9R ).
One father told The Catholic Free Press about opting his children out and teaching them sex ed at home. A grandmother said she favors sex ed – handled respectfully.
Bishop McManus called for opting out of the Worcester Public Schools’ program – Rights, Respect, Responsibility – in an Aug. 25 letter to parents, as he did last year after the program was adopted.
The letter was sent to Worcester pastors to share with parishioners, said Allison LeDoux, director of the diocesan Respect Life and Marriage and Family offices.
Those wishing to opt out must submit a form to their child’s school each year.
“Caregivers may opt out their student from the sexual education lessons by checking the option ‘I do not want my child to participate in Rights, Respect, Responsibility lessons’ on the opt out letter sent home from the school,” says the Worcester Public Schools website worcesterschools.org/sexual-health-education-curriculum-information/.
Bishop McManus urged parents to review the curriculum (www.3rs.org) and included excerpts with his letter. He also included the opt-out form and urged them to opt their children out of the entire K-12 program if they share his concerns, and to share this information with friends and neighbors.
“I find the program to be morally unacceptable for our Catholic children or any child,” he wrote. “It is age inappropriate, explicit and reflects a shallow, trivial, amoral view of sex. It is a radical program of indoctrination of children with views contrary to the Catholic understanding of sex, gender, and the dignity of the human person. … As parents, you are the first teachers of your children.”
Christ the King Parish got Bishop McManus’ letter last week and put it in a Flocknote email to all parishioners, said Msgr. Thomas J. Sullivan, pastor.
Parishioner Patrick McDonald said he and his wife, Mia, have four children in grades 6-12 in Worcester public schools, and one in college.
He said they opted out last year and this year because “the curriculum is inappropriate and disgusting.”
“We’ve basically looked at the curriculum, saw the areas that we needed to teach, and found a curriculum that matched our values” – Launch Into the Teen Years, by Focus on the Family – he said. He and his wife started teaching this to their children at home this summer. It is Christian and addresses social issues, but lacks in biology and physiology, he said, so he and his wife are adding “heavily edited” material from Rights, Respect, Responsibility.
“We actually opposed (the 3Rs program) at the school committee meeting last year” before the committee voted for it, he said. “It’s important for as many people as possible to opt out. By doing so, we send a message to the Worcester School Committee that this isn’t something parents want for their children.”
Michael King, director of community alliances for the Massachusetts Family Institute, which has been promoting the opt out, said he heard that 3,800 students did so last year.
“We’ve been trying to get the word out, because it really is pornographic material,” Christ the King parishioner Joyce Dubuque said, describing Rights, Respect, Responsibility.
Many parents don’t know what their children are studying, don’t get messages about opting out or English is not their first language, she said.
“If this is such a wonderful program, then have parents opt in” instead, she suggested; those who don’t want to teach their children sex ed themselves could do that. “It’s pretty scary; a few people decided, on the school committee, what’s good for our kids.”
The Dubuques put an opt-out sign on their lawn, and provided some for fellow parishioners. Theirs was still standing this week, but others were taken down.
Ella McLaughlin, a member of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Worcester who also attends Christ the King, said her husband, Paul, removed their sign after a neighbor who has four children in Catholic schools asked, “What am I going to say to my children when they ask what pornographic is?”
“We didn’t want to put her in that position,” Mrs. McLaughlin explained.
Claire Weirich, of Christ the King, said she was glad the sign she and her husband, Ralph, displayed on their Moreland Street lawn stayed up for about two and a half weeks.
“The people who needed to see it, saw it, I hope,” she said.
On Aug. 28 it disappeared, she said. Wednesday they put up another.
She said they don’t have grandchildren in Worcester public schools, but “I believe all children need to be protected” and their parents or caregivers “really need to think carefully about what the children are being exposed to.” She said she doesn’t think people understand how pornographic Worcester’s sex ed program is.
Fellow parishioner Christine Derr said she and her husband, Patrick, had a sign on their Bellvista Road lawn.
“It just disappeared overnight, after it had been up for a couple of days,” she said. “Why attack one another when we don’t agree?”
She said she and her husband have 10 children and 22 grandchildren, and some of the grandchildren attend Worcester public schools, so learning about the sex ed programs was important to her. She attended at least one Worcester School Committee meeting last year about programs being considered, which she discussed with other people and described as “gross.”
“And I’m totally in favor of sex ed … learning about your body, how to respect your body, how to respect other people’s bodies,” she said.
The 3Rs curriculum has much about body parts and “pleasure centers,” but lacks spiritual and moral aspects and respect for one’s own and others’ dignity, she said. She has shared what she knows with her family and other families, hoping they will opt out, she said.