An elementary school is facing backlash after promotional flyers of a clinic run by a medical volunteer corps were distributed to children.
The flyers were handed over to children as young as seven, even though their one side had advertisements of “free birth control and pre-pregnancy services” and free “implants, pills, condoms and more.”
Richard Penkoski, father of one of the students, who has an online ministry by the name of Warriors of Christ, felt concerned about such material being shared with young students.
The Christian Post reported that Penkoski confronted the school board in Sullivan County after the flyers were distributed in the Mary Hughes School.
Penkoski said to the school board: “What is more, exactly? And why was this given to my seven-year-old? Since when is it the school’s job to give information to my child about birth control? When did the public schools decide they can teach my child issues regarding morality and s*x?”
Penkoski made himself very clear on the topic. He acknowledged that schools teach the students the biological facts regarding reproduction but it is not taught to children this young.
Furthermore, the material the school shared was specifically focused on birth control.
He also said that the flyer has put him in an awkward situation as he has to explain what s*x is to a child who’s not mature enough to fathom the very essence of the issue.
“The public schools think they have the right to usurp my authority as their father. This school does not have that right,” Penkoski told the board.
David Cox, Director of Schools for Sullivan County, said the flyers were not meant for children and were distributed to let the unprivileged families know of the existence of the clinic, the Kingsport Times-News reported.
Penkoski argued that his nine-year-old daughter was not given the flyer.
He said: “The school can say ‘inadvertent’ all they want, but that is like accidentally giving a child with a peanut allergy a peanut.”
According to WBIR, Cox responded to Penkoski, saying: “What happened on the back of the information, there was another part that was inadvertently sent and it did say free birth control.”
Penkoski was not satisfied with any argument from Cox.
He explained to the Christian Post that the school was given two separate pages but the school admin printed them back to back on a single page just to save paper cost.
He said that it was not done by mistake because there’s a whole page of it and no one can just miss the ‘birth control’ written on the top.
President of the Tennessee Pastor’s Network, Dale Walker, also confronted the school board, saying: “Our question tonight is where is the accountability of this school?
“Where is the accountability of this teacher? Where is the accountability of this principal? Where are the checks and balances? What are your procedures to block inappropriate subject matter to parents?
“Since when does our education system pick and choose what our students are exposed to without notification to their parents first?”
Speaking to the Christian Post, Walker said: “We have a super Republican majority in Tennessee and many times people think that because we elect so-called conservative Christians that we can just live our lives and not pay any attention to what’s going on in the public space, in our schools and in our counties.
“Pastors better pay attention to what their children are learning in public schools. At best, we only have a couple of hours a week with children that attend our churches and then they go to secular, godless schools … and they are teaching 7-year-olds how to fornicate.”
Replaced!