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Planned Parenthood Booted

Coronado Schools Convinced by Website

By Robert Kumpel

Sometimes the little guy wins, even when his opponent has more money, more attorneys, and smoother public relations. In the case of Rhett Harring (not his real name), changing public opinion was as simple as exposing Planned Parenthood's websites. Along with a few other Coronado parents, Harring has ended Planned Parenthood's indoctrination at Coronado High School.

Harring, 55, is the father of two grown children, both of whom graduated from Coronado High School. "Planned Parenthood was scheduled to be making a presentation in the health classes at the high school. I have friends whose children attend school there and decided to come to a preview where the speaker was demonstrating what they were going to present in the classroom. That was in early January."

Planned Parenthood's entry into health classes was helped in part by the state of California's requirements that hiv/aids instruction be given twice -- once in middle school and once in high school. "The requirements are vague. I called the state education office in Sacramento, and they told me the school can do it any way they see fit. What Coronado has done is write it into the curriculum as part of a one-semester health class."

When Harring attended the January meeting for parents, he did not like what the representative from Planned Parenthood had to offer. "I was told that she was going to be the presenter in class the following day, and that she was going to be there for a total of three hours for three days to talk about anatomy and physiology, birth control, and sexually transmissible infections. There were maybe 25 parents there asking questions. I was not impressed with what she had to say or her qualifications. That caused me and several other parents to get on their website and start learning more about Planned Parenthood.

"Planned Parenthood has a website [for teens]. It's beyond disgusting. It has a letter written to kids that begins with, 'Despite what your teachers and parents say...' And it was something along the lines of: 'You don't really need Math or French or Literature after high school. What you need to learn about is sex' in capital letters. There were so many disgusting questions and answers off that website. One of them started off: 'Last night I had anal sex with my girl then she gave me pleasure. Do I have to worry about getting a disease? -- Bunghole' The site was full of questions like that."

A cursory look at the "Ask the Experts" section of the Teenwire website shows similar questions, such as: "What does the term 'muff diving' mean?", "If my girlfriend swallowed my sperm after giving me a blow job could she get pregnant?", "My boyfriend and I were dry humping in our underwear and I could feel that he was wet. Could I get pregnant?" and "Will my cherry pop if I masturbate with objects?" The questions are signed with monikers like "Angel_554", "babiiangel" and "drlove."

Harring and the other parents took what they learned to the next school board meeting on January 24. "I was not the one organizing those parents that were there. I was just one of the parents, and each of us came to our own conclusions. I spoke along with a half-dozen other parents about what we didn't like about this particular organization. It was a non-agenda item -- at every school board meeting there is an agenda but at the start of the meeting anyone can speak on something that is not on the agenda. We said what we had to say and they made it an agenda item for the March board meeting. I also presented board members with four sample questions from the Teenwire website."

At the January board meeting Harring told board members that Planned Parenthood derived a significant amount of its revenues by providing abortions for a fee. Besides usurping parental authority, offering speakers of questionable expertise, and providing medically incorrect information. Planned Parenthood, Harring pointed out, has an enormous conflict of interest, and for that reason, should not be allowed in the classroom.

"It's an offer to relieve the health teacher of talking about uncomfortable subjects: reproductive anatomy, birth control, and sexually transmitted diseases. The freshman kids are exposed to a new organization -- Planned Parenthood -- that they may now view as the experts in this area because, after all, they were the organization chosen by the school to talk to them about these things and whose brochure and phone number would go home with them."

Harring's speech along with the materials from Planned Parenthood had a dramatic effect. "The next day I got a call from the superintendent, and she thanked me profusely for getting her this information and said she was reading it with great interest. Then I heard through the grapevine that this thing was coming to a conclusion -- this is a small town here."

On March 21, the board agreed with the anti-Planned Parenthood parents. Herring: "All I did was give them material straight off of Planned Parenthood's website and let them draw their own conclusions. By the March board meeting, a staff meeting had already taken place and at that meeting it was decided that from that day forward, only certificated teachers were going to be allowed to teach the subject and that no outside speakers were going to be brought in. Based on what they had looked at, they decided to change the way they did things. So at the board meeting, it was a done deal. There was very little discussion of it. There was a report from the staff and a recommendation from the superintendent, that the school board accept the staff report.

"What's important here is that there wasn't a person that I brought this information to who wasn't surprised. One board member spoke up and said she was a pretty liberal person herself and that she was shocked by what she saw."

Harring: "I didn't make one conjecture to them. I only gave them materials that I found on the Planned Parenthood websites. I just asked them then if this organization would be one that they would be proud and pleased to be bringing into our classrooms and teaching our students as experts on these health issues. None of the stuff I put out was inflammatory and there was no name-calling. We just presented what they said in their own words. I only asked them to draw their own conclusions."

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