NYC's 'Recommended' Sex Ed Curriculum Shocks Parents
Details about sexual positions, bestiality in public school workbooks
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 25, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Parents in New York City are about to get an earful when their kids come home from school if the city's Department of Education has their way. That's because the New York Post obtained copies of workbooks that outlined new recommendations for the Sex Ed curriculum.
Now some of the lessons even vividly explain different sex acts. Now The Post reports that children as young as 11 will be required to participate. Now the city's Department of Education is playing defense saying that abstinence is still being stressed as the best way to avoid pregnancy and STDs. And parents can opt to exclude their children from certain lessons if they choose.
Joining me now with reaction, entertainment reporter, TV personality, Katrina Szish and also the author of "Don't Let Your Kids Drink the Kool-Aid," Marybeth Hicks is with us. Good to see you.
MARYBETH HICKS, AUTHOR: How are you doing, Sean?
HANNITY: I appreciate you being back.
All right, let me ask you a question. Eleven and 12 years old, they're going to -- kids are going to get risk cards. They're going to talk about various activities. Intercourse using a condom, oil base lubricant, mutual masturbation -- Jon Stewart will have fun with this -- French kissing, oral sex, and anal sex. The kids can opt out of only the part that talks about, you know, sexual -- permitting sexual pregnancy.
KATRINA SZISH, TV PERSONALITY: I think it's ridiculous that the schools can actually mandate that children must be in these classes. I think that's the main flaw with this particular curriculum.
HANNITY: Do you think it's age appropriate for an 11-year-old?
SZISH: It is not age appropriate. Listen, I don't think that children should be ignorant. I do think they need to be educated, but the education should come from their families.
HANNITY: You know, Marybeth, I'm looking today at the same New York Post that has a story that only 25 percent of kids that are supposed to graduate are ready for college or even make it to that point in New York City. So they are kind are falling down on reading, writing and math.
But in the older grades they get into S&M, oral sex with braces, fetishes, porn stars, vibrators and bestiality because they advise the kids to go to the (INAUDIBLE) web site at Columbia University.
HICKS: It's almost too embarrassing to talk to you about Sean honestly. You know, several years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics talked about the fact that the United States is the most sexualized culture for children in the western hemisphere.
And warning parents against letting kids be engaged with too much hypersexual media and yet we send them off to school, and this is going to be the gold standard for comprehensive sexuality education across the nation. This is not going to be exclusive to New York.
HANNITY: What bothers me, Marybeth, more than anything else is, you know, there are lot of parents that disagree with this. A lot of parents have different values. The school is literally circumventing the parents' values and unless it comes to birth control the kids can't opt out.
This isn't even indoctrination. This is like why don't we just take our kids, hand them over to the state and turn them into good little '60s liberals and get them back at some point when they are 30 and get off an acid trip.
HICKS: Well, and just totally undermines parental authority, which is a huge issue in a lot of arenas, but this one in particular because parents really have strong feelings about whether their children are mature enough or ready or whether it's necessary to really give them -- I would argue it's not necessary to give them all this graphic information.
But you know, parents should be the ones choosing that. I think if the New York City schools want to arm parents with information that they can send home and parents can make that decision about educating their kids in these areas, that's up to them. But I think to make that decision unilaterally on behalf of parents is completely wrong.
HANNITY: We agree with that, but you say, you know, the danger of ignorance.
Look, I remember when Holly North and Brendan Solovan (ph), his lawyer, he said I'm not a potted plant. That's why I'm here.
Why are the parents there in and if they are guardians for kids and they aren't getting this information, how about they opt in after school, after they finish reading math, science and learning, you know, the basics?
SZISH: I think the thing is -- unfortunately there are many kids out there whose parents have really usurped their responsibility to teach these values at home.
HANNITY: But every kid shouldn't suffer because some parents are dopes.
SZISH: I do -- I will again, yes, there are many parents that are dopes, but I also believe that, listen, more and more kids even if their parents at home preach abstinence, which I completely support. There are kids who are getting their information from reality shows, from the Internet and their friends.
HANNITY: Should they have the right to go in without parental permission to grab a handful of condoms?
SZISH: No, absolutely not without parental permission but they should be armed to be able to make those choices. Even the kids who are taught abstinence at home find themselves in situation where they may decide to have sex. We don't want them to, but if they do, they should at least be able to protect themselves.
HANNITY: Marybeth, we'll give you the last word.
HICKS: The last word is that, sometimes the reason kids don't know these things is because their parents are deliberately choosing not to exploit their innocence. And I think that we need to respect the role of parents in the lives of their children.
And we need to question why is it so important to some people to exploit the innocence of children and to make them part of the hypersexual culture at such an early age. I question the reasoning.
HANNITY: They're like robbing these kids of their innocence at earlier and earlier ages. But good to see you both. Thanks for being with us.
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