The Ninth Circus

I may not agree with Rush Limbaugh on everything, but this is certainly one characterization that is straight on.

The reason is the latest in a series of insane proclaimations from the Ninth Circuit. Here's a snippet from The Corner.

I've already mentioned this to Luisa and her father, but this decision has a couple of interesting facets to it:

1. Conservatives are quite perplexed. On the one hand, the court establishes that there is no constitutional right given to parents to control the contents of what a public education entails. Futhermore, they say that there is no right to privacy.
   
2. If there is no right to privacy, then what happened to the "superprecidents" of Roe vs. Wade or Griswold vs. Connecticut? That is what I would attack this ruling on more than anything else.
   
3. On the other hand, if parents can't control what's being taught in schools with THEIR money, then why have school boards in the first place? Why even hold elections? Having some grad student come into my child's school and ask these questions is something I would definitely object to. There are plenty of things that I would have a problem with a school teaching if I had a child going through a public school system. But apparently I have no redress if something objectionable being taught one way OR the other.
   
4. I wonder what the Ninth Circus' response would be if children were taught about all the good things that facism brings? Or old timey Southern-style bigotry? How much you think the courts would come down on that like a ton of bricks?
   
5. So apparently parents had to sign consent forms before allowing their child to take said survey. Thus, the parents did have control over what their children. But of course, the consent forms never mentioned the topic of the survey, ie sex. As others have mentioned, that's a serious academic no-no. Of course, the surveyors will probably say that they told the KIDS that they were going to take a survey on sex. And thus, they avoid any career-crippling problems and continue to give sex surveys to seven year olds.
   
6. Now think about this. Is any seven through ten year old going to be able to answer these questions:

   a. "Touching my private parts too much."
   b. "Thinking about having sex"
   c. "Thinking about touching other people's private parts."
   d. "Thinking about sex when I don't want to."
   e. "Washing myself because I feel dirty on the inside."
   f. "Not trusting people because they might want sex."
   g. "Getting scared or upset when I think about sex."
   h. "Having sex feelings in my body."
   i. "Can't stop thinking about sex."
   j. "Getting upset when people talk about sex."

   
   Now you can call me an old fogey who grew up sheltered, and without MTV, but if someone in the first grade told me to answer these questions, I wouldn't have had the foggiest idea of what they were talking. Or I wouldn't have cared and would've rebelled in my way of not giving two cents about what the teacher wanted me to do.
   
7. Speaking of which, is this an even remotely productive use of schooltime. In an era when educators frequently complain about how little time they have to do stuff, does time really need to be taken out of the day to take SEX questionaires? I wouldn't mind so much if the surveys would have something to do with education, but this has nothing to do with education or trying to improve my child's education.
   
8. Here's a gem of a quotation from the ruling:

   From the continuation of footnote one, the letter to parents on page 15065: "I understand answering questions may make my child feel uncomfortable. It this occurs, then, Kristi Seymour, the research study coordinator, will assist us in locating a therapist for further psychological help if necessary."

   
   FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP?!?!?!?!
   
   Now, being quite the consumer of psychological services, I know how good or bad this can be. But why would being uncomfortable answering these questions be grounds for psychological problems? They're freaking KIDS, for crying out loud. And how about if I as a parent, objected to having my kid sent to a therapist for sex, at seven years old? Would I be forced to have my child sent against my wishes? Something tells me the Ninth Circus would approve of that measure.
   
9. If parents read the consent form without actually figuring out what it said, then same on them. At the same time, students need a consent form for everything, including the infamous aspirin note.
   
10. Of course, if you don't sign the form, then your child could be ostricized from the group or can have something that would seem to be a punishment to the child. And that wouldn't be very nice, now would it?

Of course, this is all the more reason for me to not send my children to public schools. It's an even bigger problem if you then have to pay twice, once to not even educate your child.

I'll go into the whole taxation = theft thing Dan brought up a while back in a later post. (It's not). Taxes suck and it's highly immoral for the government to take and then waste on something not done for the good of everyone. But that brings up the question of a public good and I'll save that for another time.

In the meantime, the lesson as always is: Do not live in California. Unless you have no scruples.