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Candidate's Survey Response: AN ETHIC OF LIFE IN
PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION
SEX EDUCATION 2. The Washington State Legislature passed ESSB 5297 IN 2007 requiring school districts to teach "scientifically accurate" (aka comprehensive) sex education, if they teach sex ed at all. The typical comprehensive sex education program spends as little as 5% of the time teaching abstinence principles (Zogby 3/27/07), instead spending significantly more time teaching students how to put condoms on models of male genitalia and promoting alternative forms of sexual activity called outercourse, which may include showering together and mutual masturbation as effective ways to avoid pregnancy and disease. In contrast, an emphasis on abstinence means teaching students about building healthy relationships and bolstering self worth and self-control. Will you as a board member promote an emphasis on building abstinence and relationship skills in any sex ed program used, and oppose to the promotion of sexual experimentation?
3. Is it scientifically accurate and honest to teach that human life begins at conception? Consider what new mother Bristol Palin, daughter of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin recently said: "If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex" and "Trust me. Nobody." (People Magazine, May 20, 2009). Can and should school districts clearly teach students that human life begins at conception?
5. The 14th Amendment states "nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, 1973, stated that "if this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment." The Court regrettably concluded though that "we need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer." Do you believe that life begins at conception and that the "right to life" of the fetus is "guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment"?
Check all that apply:
PLANNED PARENTHOOD
9. The Supreme Court in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), held that Ohio's school voucher law did not violate the First Amendment's establishment clause. It states "the Ohio program is entirely neutral with respect to religion. It provides benefits directly to a wide spectrum of individuals, defined only by financial need and residence in a particular school district. It permits such individuals to exercise genuine choice among options public and private, secular and religious. The program is therefore a program of true private choice" and "the program does not offend the Establishment Clause." Blaine Amendments, as both Ohio and Washington State have, can permit school vouchers at times because State funds go to parents who "exercise genuine choice" in choosing where the voucher will be used at. What is your position regarding the use of school vouchers or other school choice options in Washington State?
10. Please state your professional experience, community involvement, education and other qualifications for a school board position.
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