A CONSISTENT ETHIC OF LIFE AND THE COMMON GOOD IN PUBLIC
EDUCATION
A Consistent
Ethic of Life and The
Common Good require respectful and inclusive
community collaboration in the provision of moral public
education, using the broad application of principles
valuing the sacredness of human life.
Threats to life include first abortion, fetal plundering
and euthanasia, but also moral
degradation, persistent poverty, unjust war,
capital punishment, the use of nuclear arms, violence,
racism, trafficking
and exploitation. Threats to The Common Good
include illicit acquiescence to special interests
(e.g. the abortion lobby) and coercion (e.g.WSSDA)
that promote moral degradation and violate the principle
of subsidiarity. As
a school board member, will you work to ensure that
public education is based on a Consistent Ethic of Life
and contributes to The Common Good?
Yes
SEX
EDUCATION
In 2020,
the Washington State Legislature passed SB
5395 (see
also here), which requires all public school districts
to teach comprehensive sex education, usingprograms
approved by the State. Many of these programs have
objectionable content, such as
sexualizing children, teaching children to consent to sex, normalizing anal and
oral sex, promoting homosexual and bisexual behavior,
promoting sexual pleasure, promoting solo and/or mutual
masturbation, promoting condom use in inappropriate ways,
promoting early sexual autonomy, failing
to establish abstinence as the expected standard, promoting transgender ideology, promoting contraception and
abortion to children, promoting peer-to-peer sex ed or sexual rights advocacy, undermining traditional values and beliefs, undermining
parents or parental rights and
referring children to harmful resources (see comprehensivesexualityeducation.org). See
here for harm analyses of many of the Washington State
approved programs, including
FLASH. See
school district sex ed programs here. OSPI
main sex ed webpage here. Will
you as a school board member work to promote life-respecting
sex education?
Yes, this is something that is extremely important to me.
Although I have family members who identify with the LGBTQ
community and I support their rights as individuals to make
those choices for themselves. I do not believe that it is
the schools place to teach our children this. I am not
afraid to stand up and say that either. At my children’s
former school I was asked to step down from my role on the
PTA because I was found not to be an “inclusive” person. A
kindergarten teacher read a book to her class about being
transgender. This came up in discussion at the park with a
group of moms. I voiced my opinion that I thought it was
extremely inappropriate to be reading to kindergarteners,
that an email should have went out warning parents first.
However ultimately it is not the public schools system place
to teach our children about these topics especially in
kindergarten. The trans child who was in that kindergarten
class mom happened to be at the park play date. She asked me
if I know that was her child that was trans. I explained I
did not, but I stood by what I said. The school has no place
teaching this topic. You can support people who identify
with these communities without supporting the indoctrination
of students. My daughter has conservative views she also
identifies with the LGBTQ community. She is against CSE, she
finds it to be extremely inappropriate and has already
requested I opt her out of any CSE curriculum.
SCHOOL
CLINICS
Washington State continues to facilitate the expansion of
school based clinics, most recently in 2021 legislation that
established a State office for that purpose (HB
1225). A 2010
incident that received widespread news coverage involved
a Seattle area in-school clinic that set up an abortion for
a 15-year-old high school student with neither her parents’
knowledge nor consent. What is your position on
schools dispensing birth control drugs or devices, giving
abortion counseling, or providing referrals to off-site
abortion facilities?
_____ Support
__X___ Oppose
_____ No Opinion
_____ Other:
SCHOOL CHOICE
The
Supreme Court in Zelman
v. Simmons-Harris (2002),
held that Ohio's school voucher law did not violate the
First Amendment's establishment clause. It states,
"the Ohio program is entirely neutral with respect to
religion. It provides benefits directly to a wide spectrum
of individuals, defined only by financial need and residence
in a particular school district. It permits such individuals
to exercise genuine choice among options public and private,
secular and religious. The program is therefore a program of
true private choice" and "the program does not offend the
Establishment Clause." Legislation has been
introduced in the past (HB
2933 by Vicki Kraft in 2020) to allow scholarship
tax credits for lower-income families to send their
children to an approved private school of their choice.
The Jan 2020 SCOTUS case Espinoza
v. Montana Department of Revenue indicates the fragility
ofWashington
State's Blaine Amendment. What
is your position on school vouchers, tax credits or other
methods of increasing school choice in Washington State?
___X__ Support
_____ Oppose
_____ No Opinion
_____ Other:
COVID 19 POLICY
What is the way forward for schools during the Covid 19
pandemic?
_____ Continue with Current Policies Restricting On Site
Learning
_____ Open Schools More Fully
_____ No Opinion
___X__ Other: Open schools fully with no mask or
vaccine mandates.
SOCIAL EQUITY
The
1970's developed theory called Social
Equity isn't so much about a charitable welfare
tool, one that helps groups of people with targeted
characteristics, such as persistent poverty, low
educational achievement and poor health to improve their
circumstances. Welfare generally confers equity in
some form, often financial. Rather, social equity
demands reparations for past injustices, be it the slave
history of Black Americans or some other supposedly
oppressed group, using equal
outcomes as a measure for success. In an educational
setting, this can result in the needs of academically high
achieving students not being served, where "the
achievement gap" is narrowed by the removal of advanced
educational opportunities or "tracks." Social equity
uses Marxist inspired Critical
Race Theory as a justification (Camas
example), with its promotion of oppressor and oppressed
classes, guilt and jealousy, and invoking social justice
arguments to address supposed systemic racism. What
is your position on social equity?
_____ Support
___X__ Oppose
_____ No Opinion
_____ Other:
CRITICAL RACE THEORY
What is your position on
implementing Marxist inspired Critical
Race Theory (CRT) in school districts?
_____ Support
___X__ Oppose
_____ No Opinion
_____ Other:
1619 PROJECT
What is your position on teaching the much
criticized 1619
Project on American history? See also here and here
(Wiki).
_____ Support
___X__ Oppose
_____ No Opinion
_____ Other:
ABORTION
Even dedicated
proponents of abortion acknowledge that life begins at
conception. What do you believe? Does a
unique human life begins at conception?
Yes
|
If not, how long after conception does a human
life begin?
___3 mths ___6 mths
___9 mths ___1 yr ___18
yrs?
|
|
The 14th
Amendment states "nor shall any state deprive any person of
life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws." The Supreme Court in Roe
v. Wade,
1973, stated that "if this suggestion of personhood is
established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for
the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed
specifically by the [14th] Amendment." The Court
regrettably concluded though that "we need not resolve the
difficult question of when life begins. When those trained
in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and
theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the
judiciary, at this point in the development of man's
knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the
answer." Do
you believe that the right to life of the unborn child is
guaranteed by the 14th Amendment?
Yes
Is
taking the life of a pre-born child through abortion ever morally permissible?
Check all that apply:
_____ No, it's never permissible
___X__ Yes, to save
mother's life
I could not imagine leaving my children motherless, I
believe it should be an option in this case.
___x__ Yes, in cases of
rape or incest
I personally could not have an abortion for this reason. But
I do not believe a women should be forced to carry a baby in
these circumstances.
_____ Yes, for physical
deformity
_____ Yes, for
gender
_____ Yes, for
race
_____ Yes, to
punish spouse
_____ Yes, it's always permissible
Do you
support parental notification and/or consent before a minor
(under 18 years of age) could have an abortion? A
judicial bypass of parents would be allowed when
necessary. A
2013 poll commissioned by Human Life WA, found Washington
State voters are widely supportive of laws requiring
"parental involvement" in abortion decisions for girls under
the age of 18 (62-29% with just under 10% undecided). Read
a summary of the results here. Do you
support: yes
Notification? Yes
Consent?
Yes
PLANNED
PARENTHOOD
The
nation's biggest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, in
the 2018-2019 fiscal year received
$617 million in tax payer funding and aborted 345,672
babies. Planned Parenthood is active in Oregon
school districts, where their representatives have been
allowed to regularly address students in both Portland and Salem. Opposition
has been firm and articulate (segment begins at
12:44). Should
Planned Parenthood be allowed to make presentations to
students or provide literature, birth control chemicals or
devices, or abortion services?
No
RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA
Recreational marijuana was legalized in Washington State in
2012 by Initiative
502. The drug though is still banned federally, and
considered dangerous by many, including the
AMA, the
APA, and The
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Citizens
against Marijuana Legalization (CALM) states "The
normalization, expanded use, and increased availability of
marijuana in our communities are detrimental to our youth,
to public health, and to the safety of our society."
The Alaska Association of Police Chief describe
some of the negative aspects of legalizing the drug here.
For additional dangers see here. For
an extensive report by the National Academy of Sciences (Jan
2017) see
here. What
is your position on the legal production, processing and
sale of recreational marijuana in Washington State?
