An “06880” reader believes Westport’s approach to sex education — and related activities — is too much, too soon.
She requests anonymity, due to the sensitive nature of her concerns. She writes:
I know I may be in the minority. But I also know I speak for many more parents than myself. I think there is too much sex in our schools.
I did not grow up here. But my sex education came from my parents, not my teachers. When I was 16, my mother gave me a book: “What’s Happening to My Body?”
My boyfriend and I had already been fooling around a bit (I will leave the dirty parts to your imagination). But the book made many good points. And although they were embarrassing to look at, the pictures were good too.
My mother said I could ask her any questions, any time. I never did, but just knowing I could go to her was comforting.
The point is: School is for education. It’s where children learn to read and write and add. (They should also learn about the right kind of history, not the kind that says America is evil, but that’s a different subject.)
School is not for sex education. That is the job of parents, and priests.
I know I may rub some people the wrong way, but I also would like to see the end of proms at Staples High School.
I understand they are a “rite of passage.” But they should not be a “right to have sex.” I have 4 children in high school, and they tell me that sometimes after prom, there are parties where boys and girls “do it.”
Perhaps there could be an after-school activity (during the afternoon) to celebrate graduation. But proms are an invitation for children to have too much fun.
Proms have been around for a long time. This is a shot of the Staples High School prom, around 1960.
Finally, I would like to see the end of co-ed physical education. I think it is a bad idea for children to wear gym clothes around members of the other sex, while they play games.
At Staples, boys and girls even take swimming lessons together. I cannot imagine what they think and talk about as they go into their separate locker rooms (hopefully).
I have written a petition to the Board of Education, asking them to rethink their position on sex education, and other sex-related activities. You can add your comments to it (and see that many people agree with me) by clicking here.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
(“06880” is committed to giving a voice to all Westporters. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Dan, I really think someone is pulling your leg!
I think you should click on the link!
Good one Dan! You got me 100% and I was going bananas! Thanks for the laugh!
Hilarious!
Talking about rubbing folks the wrong way, I’ve heard that, at some of those post-prom parties, boys and boys “do it.” This is why we MUST ban books!
I was so completely taken. My eyes were getting wider and wider. I was having trouble breathing at one point. I was ready to comment without clicking the link. Thank goodness you put in “see who else agrees with me” because that was irresistible.
Got me again! Older, but obviously not much wiser. Happy Fools Day!
Good one Dan!
Very good Dan!!!!
Great to see Dee Tashian and Doug Jansen in the prom photo above!
And Kelly Karsten. The class of ‘61 had serious lookers.
Good one! As I read I was mentally preparing a response. It would have been so long and it’s so early in the morning . Then, thank goodness, I remembered it ‘s April Fools Day. You had me for a few minutes.
It took me a few minutes, but then I realized what day it was. Good try Dan.
I was fooled. Thanks for the laugh!!
Hahaha
My blood was boiling 🤬
Good one,Dan
Haha! Good one, Dan!
Nice Dan !!!!!!!! Well done once again– Happy April Fools Day !!!!
Terrific April Fools! You had me as we live in an insane world.
Every Friggin year‼️
next April 1st I’m gonna put an alert on my phone 😂
That was pretty good! 😂
Great one Dan!
We should all be thankful there is not one person in Westport who actually thinks this way!!
Jeez Dan – way to get me riled up so early!
Good one indeed.
Dan, it’s April 1st. This has to be an APRIL FOOLS prank.
Frank (Santa) Murgalo
It is. Click on the link to the petition.
Is Alan Abel writing this from the grave?
You got me, too! Haha!
Thank heaven I just remembered what day it is.
Best one yet!
I look forward to your April Fool’s posts every year, but today I forgot what day it was. Good one, You got me.
I’ve got an April Fools joke for all of you… Sex is a not a biological reality but a social construct devised for oppression purposes! And get this, there are more than two genders! Hahahahaha!
Shame on you Dan! I have three teenage daughters and my wife and I have our hands full. And their respective boyfriends probably get their hands full too if you get my drift. Unprovoked sex is a vote for Trump. Is that what you want?
This person seems WAY too close minded for now or any time.Kids need to be educated about sex IN SCHOOL. Also all that talk about gym clothes, etc. Is very disturbing. Her mind seems to be thinking that everything is sexual.
By the way, I graduated in 1961- that picture is of Kate Buddy, dee Tashian, Kelly Katsren and Doug?????.
Oh well… I guess you know the females and one isn’t Marry.
I was about to comment to that woman, by telling her to move to Florida or Texas.
Unfortunately all your commenters had a good April Fools laugh
but what about the woman wanting to ban the three ( plus more on her list) books at Staples?
IT was a funny April Fools but there is too much truth in this humor
Anyway thanks for the morning chuckle
OMG my blood pressure is just now starting to go down. Good one Dan!!! Happy April Fools!
Ha! I was fooled! I live in Oklahoma now, so was wondering how that letter was in WESTPORT, my lovely liberal, straight thinking town. Here in Oklahona we actually have LOTS of those kind of people. Very sad!
Well, you got me! Ha ha
This April Fools prank almost as good as the Westport Journal one from last year (which was slightly delayed). Imagine so called good people organizing an event where men in unitards with their penises tucked back gyrated in front of five year olds?! And then the organizer crawled on the floor for the stripper cash! Obviously something as depraved and abusive to children like that could never take place in virtuous Westport! https://westportjournal.com/community/art-of-drag-dressed-up-at-moca/
Good one, Dan!!!! I was hooked until a couple of paragraphs into the article! You got me!
Priscilla, Are you related to James Long, Staples 1958? He had a younger brother who used to bowl. I can’t think of his first name though.
Herb Long.. I just remembered his first name.
Can anyone identify the woman on the right in the picture? Is her first name Mary? The person I’m thinking of actually graduated in 1958 from Staples.
Oh I was livid that you sent this! About to unsubscribe! Thank goodness I got to the comments! Funny, but yet not funny.
U got me for sure!
Ya got me. ( working on pithy)
We need a little laughter!! Not far from reality for some folks. So well written Dan. You keep us informed all the time
Best ever, Dan. Hard to top that one, you devil, you!
It’s not just April Fools. Happy Trans Day of Vengeance everyone! Fweedom!!
You got me! Ha!
You doggity dog!! You 100% had me and lordy did I have a lengthy response prepared! Good one!!!
Would this also mean the end to the compulsory drug and alcohol tasting buffet?
Once again, hook, line and sinker 😊
Assuming this is a joke since anyone who has ever taught a sexuality class to 8th graders is well aware they have already seen and heard more than I had when I was 25 and married. I remember overhearing 3 of the 8th graders in my class talking about how to work around Parental Control on hotel TVs. The Our Whole Lives sexuality curriculum at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Westport where my husband and I taught for 10 years was developed by the UUA and the United Churches of Christ. It gave a moral framework and a vocabulary to eighth graders that we’ve heard from returning college students, was literally lifesaving.
Yes Lynda it’s a joke. Dan is mocking the “banned book” challenge- and all parents in our community who object to cartoon child pornography being promoted in our schools (and the general idea of extreme sexual content being normalized within our schools as a broader strategy to push gender fluidity among other agendas). He wants to equate it to “clutching pearls” and some kind of ridiculous crackdown on normal and acceptable sex education. It’s a clever distortion- but those of us with actual kids in the schools, especially young ones, recognize what these people are up to.
Or, to put it another way: “Yes, Lynda, it’s a joke. Today is April Fools Day.”
Wow. Certainly has a right to her opinion, if this was not a joke. But a lot of parents fail to teach their children anything. Mine taught me nothing and were happy to have the school take care of it.
“Too much sex in our schools? No coeducation? Do you want to live in 1450 vs 2023? Have you learned yourself what your kids see in the movies/on tv/on the internet/from their friends? Do some research on what kids have access to today (at 8, not 16). You remind me of my much younger friends who all assured me 30 years ago that their 16 year old children had never had sex. Turned out they were all wrong. And that was long ago. Teaching facts doesn’t “encourage” sex. It teaches facts instead of biases, shame, and guilt. Fortunately children also have other sources than parents who are rarely up to the task. I’m amazed at parents who exposure their children to all kinds of violence and terror and sexism but shrink at giving them facts about bodies. Maybe our public schools should give parents courses on how to teach their children about “sex”! I’d be curious to know what you think should be in such a curriculum. Best wishes to you AND your kids. Rosalie Wolf
Ya got me, and as I can see, a bunch of other folks. Great job!
You had me until ‘no co-ed PE’ : ) Well done!
Well done…I was worried about 06880 supporting this rant…hilarious…what’s next, Dan? 😀😀😀
I prepared myself well in advance for your April Fools’ joke, but was fooled again! I was ready to write a response to the letter writer when I started to read the comments. Dan, you are amazing!
Unfortunately, there is no joke involved here, even if it April Fool’s Day in Westport. The rest of the country would read this and use it to show how liberal and degrading CT is. Did Stormy Daniels graduate from Staples?
No, but Marilyn Chambers did, there Dave. Lighten up, somehow kids do learn about sex on their own. Yikes think of that. March Madness leads to April Tomfoolery.
Carl, I know someone on the 1966 football team at Staples who turned down a date with the future Marilyn Chambers because she was an 8th grader and he was a senior, and seniors would never date and 8th grader, right! And you would know this person because you played on the same team. I just don’t want to mention a name. But Ms B was chasing him for a date.
John, it is an April fool’s joke. The point is to conflate objections to the “banned books” (which among other things graphically depict children participating in sex acts) with historical puritanical prudishness like objections to sex ed or a sock hop. The idea is to depict reasonable people, who don’t like the new trend of injecting extremely graphic hyper sexual content into our schools, as religious nut jobs who would just as soon ban Catcher in the Rye. It’s a deliberate deceit that older folks in particular seem to fall for because they have no idea how vile the banned books actually are and to some extent don’t want to know- they just want to stay in their comfort zone ranting against all things potentially associated with Trump or the state of Florida. The true April fools are our young children who live in a town where the elders are happy to expose them to vile pornographic material.
I grew up in Westport and have raised two kids one of which is special needs and the other a career high school teacher. My wife and I left CT and moved to Ohio (affordability) so that one parent in my family could devote full time attention to supporting the public school teachers in the education of our kids. I don’t believe in delegation when it comes to child-rearing, probably a result of having been raised a latchkey kid in Westport. I certainly respect educators and gladly empower them to make decisions that lie within the scope of their responsibilities and don’t abridge my responsibilities as a parent. However, I also insist on educators remaining accountable to the taxpaying parents from whom comes the tax revenue that pays their salaries. I am not saying that parents should be censors but I do feel that they have a right to be heard and respected.
I thought I was in a time warp for a second. But all I will say is priests?? This country is still so puritanical and that is a big reason why we have the most abortions in the western world besides the highest infant mortality rate and maternal deaths. We’re a Third World country when it comes to sexuality and the data proves it. Soto distract us from what’s important and have us worry about drag queens.
To follow up I’m a schmuck. Good on you Dan.
Good one, Dan, but I questioned why at 16 she was given the book, “What’s Happening to My Body?” when its been changing for years already! Back in my day (yikes!) we got that information in 5th grade!
Name one statement made by the author of this letter that Osama Bin Laden would disagree with.