Decades ago, guarding the innocence of children wasn't so controversial.  In the face of examples of sexual crimes involving minors, nearly every jurisdiction passed a law prohibiting those deemed a danger to the sexual security of children from residing within 1,000 feet of any school.  Sex offenses cited by protective legislation included "lewd conduct, child endangerment, or child enticement."

But times have changed.  Today the largest teachers' unions openly urge their members to expose young students to topics and resource materials so prurient that some school boards have prohibited reading them out loud at their public meetings.  Some recommended teaching materials suggest to minors that it is okay to engage in dangerous sexual activity.

The National Education Association (NEA) includes nearly 3 million members.  At this year's annual NEA convention, they endorsed unrestricted abortion on demand, in effect advocating for the killing of who should be future students.  Another resolution called for in-service training to support students who believe they were born in the wrong body and promoted resources to fight religious expression in schools that might impact activities such as drag queen story hours.  The NEA also recommends students read books with pornographic images — e.g., two underage teens using their mouths for sexual behavior and minor children masturbating.

A typical example is found in an Ohio school district with over 16,000 students, which recently held a presentation for teachers with slide after slide of LGBT activist talking points, inaccuracies, and high-risk resources.  A glossary of sexual anarchy terms and identity flags were covered; pronoun distortion was recommended; teachers were urged to "support" gender-confused students who desire medical or surgical mutilation.  There were no statements of caution.  This presentation said gender-questioning students need "affirmation" and pro-LGBT "role models."

Like many school districts, this one clearly wants to establish a norm of never questioning but always encouraging homosexual, bisexual, and transgender identities and behaviors.  There was no lower age limit given for these recommendations.

A Georgia school district with 38,000 students claimed that the sexually explicit materials the district recommends promote "intellectual freedom."  One book on the list, Blankets, "depicts a young boy watching his little brother get raped by a pedophile."  Gender Queer is another book offered to students; this one has graphic descriptions of oral sodomy and masturbation while promoting chest binders and sex toys.

More than 1,000 school districts across the country, even in so-called "red states" like Idaho, have been adopting policies to keep parents in the dark about their children's gender identity and sexual orientation with policies implying that a school employee could be fired for violating a student's confidentiality on "LGBT" issues.

The normalization of sexualized children is directly related to the increase in sexual misconduct instances against children, by school employees.  For example, a Tennessee teacher who'd been awarded "teacher of the month" was recently charged with rape after allegedly having frequent sex with an underage student.  The 28-year-old geometry teacher and volleyball coach told a student reporter that her favorite part of the day was "getting to interact with students and build relationships with them."

Check your local school to ensure that no school sanctioned or otherwise "lewd conduct, child endangerment, or child enticement" is going on by your child's teacher or coach.

Tom Harvey is a military veteran, former business executive, and college lecturer.  twharvey@columbus.rr.com.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.