Sex Ed for Kindergarteners ‘Right Thing to Do,’ Says Obama
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — Police in Oakland are investigating a report of second graders engaging in a sex act in the classroom, with the teacher present.
“She saw them taking off their clothes and that she saw them doing personal things to each other, the students,” a concerned grandparent said.
The woman’s 7-year-old grandchild was the one who told a teacher’s aide on Wednesday about the two incidents, one of which was oral sex between the two students.
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It is the kind of thing no parent could ever imagine. The first reaction is shock that this could happen in their child’s school.
“If I had known this morning, I would not have brought him to school,” parent Lataya Young said.
Another reaction has been, “Where was the teacher?”
“The teacher should have paid more attention to what’s going on,” parent Nikki Turner said.
School officials believe the teacher was in the room, but that is all he could tell them.
“He expressed that he did not have any knowledge of what is alleged to have occurred,” Oakland Unified School District spokesperson Troy Flint said.
On the minds of most everyone is how children could so young know so much?
“I don’t understand it, but it’s on the parents, OK, because they learn that at home, they don’t teach that at school,” Allen Saunders, who’s nephew is in the class, said.
“This is profoundly abnormal behavior,” pediatrician and child abuse expert Dr. Jim Crawford said. “My concern would be maybe something happened to one or more of the kids involved and that they’re responding in this type of behavior because of what happened to them.”
These are all things that Oakland school police are investigating. Assisting them are investigators from the Oakland Police Department sexual assault unit, who were talking to the 20 or so children in that classroom.
The grandmother of the girl who reported the incident says the principal gave her an award and that her family raised her well.
“She knows right from wrong and I’m very proud of her,” she said.
The district has been providing counseling for the children in the classroom and the principal has been speaking with students. The district has not released the teacher’s name but he has been placed on administrative leave.
Letter from Oakland Unified School district on sexual assault
January 20, 2011
Dear Parents, Caregivers and Staff of Markham Elementary,
It is with deep regret that I inform you of a disturbing event which, according to initial findings, took place at
Markham Elementary recently.
Given the sensitive nature of the issue, I am somewhat limited in what I can say, but I can tell you that on
Wednesday, January 19, we received reports of two incidents which occurred between students on campus
during the previous week. According to the allegation, the first incident involved several students who
undressed, at least partially, while acting disruptively in the classroom. The second incident concerned two
students who engaged in sexually explicit behavior, also in the classroom.
Upon hearing these reports, we immediately launched an investigation which, to date, suggests that the reports
have merit. We have interviewed all the student participants who were implicated, as well as their teacher, and
we continue to investigate the matter aggressively. We have contacted all the parents of those students who
were identified as being involved. The teacher in the classroom where the acts allegedly occurred will not be
reporting to the site, pending the results of further investigation.
As the leader at this school, I apologize for this and assure you that we are collaborating with counselors and
parents to provide support to those involved, address any concerns and take whatever actions are necessary to
ensure that a similar act does not occur again.
At Markham, we pride ourselves in providing a safe learning environment for all of our children and the events
as reported represent an unacceptable lack of supervision. I understand that there is great anger over this news. I
am more than willing to discuss any concerns you wish to voice. Should you have further questions about this
or other issues at Markham, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Pam Booker
Principal
Markham Elementary
While Americans are busy chastising ‘Tiger mom’ Amy Chua for her observations about the state of parenting in the United States, at Markham Elementary School in Oakland, CA, second grade students got naked in their classroom. And engaged in oral sex. And the teacher was there. In the classroom. While it was going on.
Here we are, publicly debating whether or not parenting in America is seriously lacking, and along comes a story about seven-year-olds who are licking each other’s private parts in school.
Good Lord, America: wake up. This is pathetic. Pitiful. Egregious. Flat out disgraceful. Amy Chua may not have used this terminology to describe how American parents, or just adults in general, have failed our nation’s kids – but she could have. And she’d be right.
When I heard this story, I was reminded of Chua’s Today show interview with Meredith Vieira. Chua used teen sex, or teenage pregnancy, as an example (along with rampant drug use and the abdication of parental authority) of where Western parenting has gone wrong. Vieira was horrified. Wait a minute, she said.
“It’s not like we condone that.”
Vieira did what one would expect of any left wing member of the media elite: she defended the parents of America. She had to – otherwise they’d feel bad about doing a bad job of raising their kids. And we can’t have that.
Meanwhile, while second graders in China are busy learning their ABCs in a traditional classroom environment where the teachers – not the kids – are in control, second graders in America are doing something else altogether. And we wonder why China is running circles around America.
Wait, you say. Isn’t the culture at fault? Yes, but all cultures are comprised of tiny communities called families, each of whom make up one piece of a very large pie. The place to focus our attention is on the family itself. That Meredith Vieira let parents off the hook makes her almost as guilty as the parents who churned out the kind of kids who would take their clothes off in school and make nice with their classmates.
What about the schools? Aren’t they to blame? Of course — the lack of discipline in public schools is just as pathetic as the lack of discipline in America’s families. But before schools went downhill, parenting did. Think of it this way: Even if America’s schools were stellar, they’d still have to contend with the quality of kids parents bring to their doorstep. Now reverse that. If parenting in America were stellar, schools wouldn’t have the problem in the first place. Which means when push comes to shove, it all comes back to the state of the American family.
One has to wonder what images the children are seeing on television, athome or with their friends that lead to this kind of behavior,” writes Boyce Watkins, Ph.D.
It’s time we called a spade a spade. American parenting is, as Chua and her Asian friends say, “shocking.’ Perhaps a little stigma is just what American parents need.
Suzanne Venker is an author and former classroom teacher. Her new book, The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know – and Men Can’t Say is due out March 15, 2011. Suzanne’s website iswww.suzannevenker.com.
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