‘Parents’ Rights’ Bill Targets Aids Counseling Students Would Need Permission For Sex Education, Aids Information

Washington lawmakers are studying a “parents’ rights” bill that would ban counseling students or teaching them about AIDS prevention or sex without written consent from their parents.

The Senate Education Committee held a hearing Thursday, and the House Education Committee will hear testimony today on legislation that is gaining popularity nationally with religious conservatives and “profamily” groups.

Proponents, including Senate sponsor Val Stevens, R-Arlington, and former football star Jeff Kemp, told the Senate panel that schools have slowly eroded parents’ roles in their children’s lives. Some said schools are contributing to a moral decline by teaching humanism, multiculturalism and “New Age” approaches.

But opponents said parents already have ample opportunity to review all curriculum and to withdraw their children from any classwork a family finds objectionable. They said students’ health and safety may be jeopardized if the school has to track down parents to get permission before offering counseling or giving health and AIDS courses.

The legislation is favored to pass the Republican-controlled Legislature, but Democratic Gov. Gary Locke is expected to veto it. Lawmakers then could choose to send an identical bill to the November ballot, bypassing the governor.

“This puts parents back into the driver’s seat when it comes to their children’s education,” Stevens told her colleagues.

Some districts have “strayed so far” from the Legislature’s intent that sex-education classes stress abstinence that they are using graphic materials that include directions on how to use condoms, she said. Without giving specifics, she said some public schools are teaching values that some families find objectionable.

Kemp, director of the Bellevue-based Washington Family Council, said the “common sense” legislation would empower parents to take a greater role in their youngsters’ education.

Senate Bill 5555 would reverse the procedure for classes about AIDS prevention, human sexuality, alcohol and drugs, and course units on suicide and health-related topics. Currently, parents have to inform schools when they don’t want their children to take such classes. Under the bill, they would have to sign a permission form for their children to receive the education. Counselors could not work with students without express permission from home.

Currently, only about 1 percent of students are withdrawn, the committee was told.

Critics of the bill said it would be a huge burden for schools to have to seek out parents or guardians.