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We recommend using any or all of the strategies below to protect children in your state from the harmful effects of CSE.
Watch the “War Against Children” documentary
Watch the “War Against Children” documentary and share this link to the documentary with your friends and neighbors at org/film/
Utilize Opt-Out Forms
DOWNLOAD: Liberty Counsel Opt-Out Form
Parents often do not receive notification due to lack of follow through or due to form getting lost in the shuffle.
Strategy:
- Print out and fill out opt out form
- Have school office file it in your student’s profile at the beginning of the year.
- Have a talk with your child and let them know the opt out form is in the office. They can utilize it anytime throughout the year when questionable sex content is presented in any class.
Connect with Others
Let us put you in contact with other people and organizations who are actively involved in helping to protect the health and innocence of children in your state.
Use the form below to send us your name, city, state, school district, and any questions or concerns you may have about CSE in your state, and we will connect you with people from your state or one of our national representatives.
Use the Defenders Tool Kit
Utilize the full spectrum of tools we have developed to help parents, concerned citizens, and policy-makers protect children from the harmful effects of CSE programs.
Parental Rights: Are Yours at Risk?
Know what parental rights are available to utilize. Most legislation/policy has laws about parental involvement, notification, opt-out/in, and consent. Demand follow through on these policies.
Strategies:
- Get involved in curriculum committees
- Mandate clear parental notification at the beginning of the year
- Mandate curriculum review before the beginning of the year including throughout the year without a time limit.
- Mandate parental involvement in committees
- Mandate public informational townhalls with parental opinion and input.
- Mandate alternative credit options if opting out
- Push for opt-in within legislation and policy
- Mandate a list of outside organizations that will be allowed in the school
- Mandate that if one opinion is shared in the classroom by a teacher or an outside contracted organization, then it is policy that another opinion be shared.
Parental Rights
15-102. Parental involvement in the school; definition
- The governing board, in consultation with parents, teachers and administrators, shall develop and adopt a policy to promote the involvement of parents and guardians of children enrolled in the schools within the school district, including:
- Procedures by which parents may learn about the course of study for their children and review learning materials, including the source of any supplemental educational materials.
- Procedures by which parents who object to any learning material or activity on the basis that it is harmful may withdraw their children from the activity or from the class or program in which the material is used. Objection to a learning material or activity on the basis that it is harmful includes objection to a material or activity because it questions beliefs or practices in sex, morality or religion.
- If a school district offers any sex education curricula pursuant to section 15-711 or 15-716 or pursuant to any rules adopted by the state board of education, procedures to prohibit a school district from providing sex education instruction to a pupil unless the pupil’s parent provides written permission for the child to participate in the sex education curricula.
- Procedures by which parents will be notified in advance of and given the opportunity to withdraw their children from any instruction or presentations regarding sexuality in courses other than formal sex education curricula.
- Procedures by which parents may learn about the nature and purpose of clubs and activities that are part of the school curriculum, extracurricular clubs and activities that have been approved by the school.
- The right to opt in to a sex education curriculum if one is provided by the school district.
- The right to opt out of assignments pursuant to this section.
- The right to opt out of immunizations pursuant to section 15-873.
- The right to opt out of instruction on the acquired immune deficiency syndrome pursuant to section 15-716.
- The right to access instructional materials pursuant to section 15-730.
- The right to public review of courses of study and textbooks pursuant to sections 15-721.F2 and 15-722.B.
- The right to be excused from school attendance for religious purposes pursuant to section 15-806.
- Policies related to parental involvement pursuant to this section.
- The right to seek membership on school councils pursuant to section 15-351.
- The policy adopted by the governing board pursuant to this section may also include the following components:
- A plan by which parents will be made aware of the district’s parental involvement policy and this section, including:
- Rights under the family educational rights and privacy act of 1974 (20 United States Code section 1232g) relating to access to children’s official records.
- The parent’s right to inspect the school district policies and curriculum.
- Efforts to encourage access to community and support services for children and families.
- The promotion of communication between the school and parents concerning school programs and the academic progress of the parents’ children.
- Identifying opportunities for parents to participate in and support classroom instruction at the school.
- Efforts to support, with appropriate training, parents as shared decision-makers and to encourage membership on school councils.
- The recognition of the diversity of parents and the development of guidelines that promote widespread parental participation and involvement in the school at various levels.
- The development of preparation programs and specialized courses for certificated employees and administrators that promote parental involvement.
- The development of strategies and programmatic structures at schools to encourage and enable parents to participate actively in their children’s education.
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The governing board may adopt a policy to provide to parents the information required by this section in an electronic form.
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A parent shall submit a written request for information pursuant to this section during regular business hours to either the school principal at the school site or the superintendent of the school district at the office of the school district. Within ten days after receiving the request for information, the school principal or the superintendent of the school district shall either deliver the requested information to the parent or submit to the parent a written explanation of the reasons for the denial of the requested information. If the request for information is denied or the parent does not receive the requested information within fifteen days after submitting the request for information, the parent may submit a written request for the information to the school district governing board, which shall formally consider the request at the next scheduled public meeting of the governing board if the request can be properly noticed on the agenda. If the request cannot be properly noticed on the agenda, the governing board shall formally consider the request at the next subsequent public meeting of the governing board.
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For the purposes of this section, “parent” means the natural or adoptive parent or legal guardian of a minor child.
Know Your State Laws
State Laws are established by state legislatures, while sex education policies are implemented by the local state department of education. The information below is intended for comparison purposes so that individuals can determine if their school’s sex education programs are in compliance with state regulations.
- Strategies
- Objectives
- Talking Points
- Model Legislation
(Katie will get me the content and the content needs to go on one page but anchor each section of the page.)
Reference this website as a template maybe:
https://www.comprehensivesexualityeducation.org/u-s-federal-funding-types/
According to Arizona Sex Education Statutes
15-716 – Instruction on acquired immune deficiency syndrome; department assistance
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- Each common, high and unified school district may provide instruction to kindergarten programs through the twelfth grade on acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the human immunodeficiency virus.
- Each district is free to develop its own course of study for each grade. At a minimum, instruction shall:
- Be appropriate to the grade level in which it is offered.
- Be medically accurate.
- Promote abstinence.
- Discourage drug abuse.
- Dispel myths regarding transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus.
- No district shall include in its course of study instruction which:
- Promotes a homosexual life-style.
- Portrays homosexuality as a positive alternative life-style.
- Suggests that some methods of sex are safe methods of homosexual sex.
- At the request of a school district, the department of health services or the department of education shall review instruction materials to determine their medical accuracy.
- At the request of a school district, the department of education shall provide the following assistance:
- A suggested course of study.
- Teacher training.
- A list of available films and other teaching aids.
- At the request of a parent, a pupil shall be excused from instruction on the acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the human immunodeficiency virus as provided in subsection A of this section. The school district shall notify all parents of their ability to withdraw their child from the instruction.
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15-711 – Sex education curricula; sexual conduct with a minor
All school districts with existing sex education curricula shall include instruction on the laws relating to sexual conduct with a minor for pupils in grades seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve. Each school district may develop its own course of study to meet the requirements of this section.
15-721 – Common schools; course of study; textbooks; definition
- Require that all meetings of committees authorized for the purposes of textbook review and selection be open to the public as prescribed in title 38, chapter 3, article 3.1.
- Make available at the school district office for review by the public, for a period of sixty days prior to formal selection of textbooks, a copy of each textbook that is being considered for selection.
According to Arizona Consent Laws
- Age of Consent – Based on Arizona Statute 13-1405, the age when children can legally consent or agree to sex is 18
- Age of Majority – Based on Arizona Statute 1-215.19, anyone under the age of 18 is considered a minor, while those 18 years old and older are considered adults.
- Without notifying or receiving consent from their parents, minor children in Arizona may consent to and receive all contraceptive services and all STI (sexually transmitted infection) services without parental notification or consent.
- Parental consent is required for Abortion services
13-1413. Capacity of minor sexual assault victim to consent to medical examination
Notwithstanding any other provision of the law, when it is not possible to contact the parents or legal guardian within the short time span in which the examination should be conducted a minor twelve years of age or older alleged to be the victim of a violation of section 13-1406 may give consent to hospital, medical and surgical examination, diagnosis and care in connection with such violation. Such consent shall not be subject to incapacity because of the victim’s age. The consent of the parent, parents or legal guardian of such minor shall not be necessary to authorize such hospital, medical and surgical examination, diagnosis and care, and such parent, parents or legal guardian shall not be liable for payment for any services rendered pursuant to this section.
According to Arizona Obscenity Laws
Arizona recodified its criminal law based in part on the ALI-MPC in 1978.
Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-3506
Furnishing harmful items to minors; applicability; classification
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- It is unlawful for any person, with knowledge of the character of the item involved, to recklessly furnish, present, provide, make available, give, lend, show, advertise or distribute to minors any item that is harmful to minors.
- This section does not apply to the transmission or sending of items over the internet.
- A violation of this section is a class 4 felony.
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Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-3501
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- “Harmful to minors” means that quality of any description or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual activity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse, when both:(a) To the average adult applying contemporary state standards with respect to what is suitable for minors, it both:(i) Appeals to the prurient interest, when taken as a whole. In order for an item as a whole to be found or intended to have an appeal to the prurient interest, it is not necessary that the item be successful in arousing or exciting any particular form of prurient interest either in the hypothetical average person, in a member of its intended and probable recipient group or in the trier of fact.(ii) Portrays the description or representation in a patently offensive way.(b) Taken as a whole does not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
- “Item” means any material or performance which depicts or describes sexual activity and includes any book, leaflet, pamphlet, magazine, booklet, picture, drawing, photograph, film, negative, slide, motion picture, figure, object, article, novelty device, recording, transcription, live or recorded telephone message or other similar items whether tangible or intangible and including any performance, exhibition, transmission or dissemination of any of the above. An item also includes a live performance or exhibition which depicts sexual activity to the public or an audience of one or more persons. An item is obscene within the meaning of this chapter when all of the following apply:(a) The average person, applying contemporary state standards, would find that the item, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest. In order for an item as a whole to be found or intended to have an appeal to the prurient interest, it is not necessary that the item be successful in arousing or exciting any particular form of prurient interest either in the hypothetical average person, in a member of its intended and probable recipient group or in the trier of fact.(b) The average person, applying contemporary state standards, would find that the item depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual activity as that term is described in this section.(c) The item, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
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Educate Others About the Harms of CSE
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