Taking Sex Ed Too Far?

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," August 19, 2004 that has been edited for clarity.

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JOHN KASICH, GUEST HOST: In the Impact Segment, did Planned Parenthood (search) cross the line by distributing racy sex ed manuals to kids?

Last month at a conference in Waco, Texas, the group's central Texas chapter gave 10 to 14- year-old kids a free copy of the book "It's Perfectly Normal." Now, get this, folks, the book contains explicit illustrations of sexual intercourse and masturbation, as well as information on abortion and homosexual relationships.

Dr. Mikki Meyer joins us now. She's a family therapist. Planned Parenthood declined an invitation to appear, and they wouldn't provide a statement. And Doctor asked me to be nice, so I will be, Doctor. But look, let's start with the central question. This book is really, to me, it's pretty amazing.

First of all, shouldn't the parents have known what the heck these 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds were going to get when they went to this conference?

MIKKI MEYER, PHD, FAMILY THERAPIST: I think they probably should have known, especially for a 10-year-old. However, I'm not sure that the parents would be open enough, if they had seen it beforehand, to allow them to even look at it. And I think it's unfortunate that there are so many children who are being withheld — information's being withheld so that they don't understand their own bodies.

KASICH: All right, you know, first of all, I think we're going to put some pictures up here that are in this book. Now, I've asked our producers to stick them up there just the way they appear in this book. They're telling me they have been put up. We blocked them out. We have not put up the real pictures.

And I said to the producers, if you think this book is fine, put it up the way it is. And they said, "No, we can't do that. This is a family program." So Doctor, why is it that we can't put these on national television because they're offensive, but we can give these same pictures to 10-year-old kids? Doesn't make any sense, does it?

MEYER: Doesn't make any sense. And many of them are cartoon pictures. The pictures are all about the natural body.

KASICH: But why would a 10-year-old need to see two people, you know, simulating intercourse? Why do they need to see a graphic picture of a man and a woman masturbating? I mean, what does a 10 or an 11-year-old need to get out of that?

MEYER: Do you think that 10 and 11-year-olds are ignorant? They know that they have bodies. We see 3 and 4-year-olds touching themselves. Does that mean that they're bad? And if we start to teach children that their body is bad and that if they touch themselves or they explore themselves, they come away thinking that they're bad.

KASICH: But no one's saying that you have to teach kids that because they shouldn't be masturbating at the age of 10 or, you know, that this has something to do with bad. It's inappropriate. What does it accomplish to have these kind of pictures presented to these kids?

To me, when I was 10-years-old, it would have disturbed me to have some grown up putting this to me. And if I went home with this book, I don't even want to tell you what the heck my parents would do. What does this accomplish? I mean, look, like your body, but this is way beyond liking your body, isn't it?

MEYER: I think this is a fabulous tool for parents to be able to sit down with their kids and talk about it.

KASICH: Parents weren't even included in this. This is some stranger...

MEYER: But they have it at home so that they can.

KASICH: Yeah, but look, I mean, what is to be gained by showing a man and a woman on top of themselves, in bed, at the age of 10? What does that have to do with those kids' bodies?

MEYER: At the age of 10, possibly not. But we do have 10-year-olds who are getting involved...

KASICH: OK, but we're giving this to 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds, 12- year-olds, I mean, I don't see what we gain through this. Look, you believe in sex education; I believe in it. I think it ought to be in the home. Let's say it goes beyond the home and gets into health class, right?  Aren't we beyond what sex ed was all about?

You know, there's a teacher in New Mexico we're going to cover on "Heartland" tomorrow night saying to kids, "Taste this condom." Haven't we gone way beyond what sex ed was really all about?

MEYER: I wish I could say that we have, but we haven't. And I think when we look at kids who are being abused right in front of our faces, and this is happening all over America, this opens the door for them to be able to talk about things that they shouldn't know about.

KASICH: You know what, Doctor? You tell a kid, you know, nobody should touch you in these certain places, I don't think you have to have a picture of a man masturbating in a book shown to a 10-year-old to show that that's inappropriate behavior. But I was nice.

Thanks for being with us, Doctor. Thank you very much.

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