Public Schools Vs. Parent's Rights

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from WorldNetDaily.com, November 3, 2005, with the headline: “Public Schools Win Over Parents’ Rights.” The following are excerpts: “The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday against parents who sued their local school district after their elementary-aged children were given a sexually-charged survey, saying there is ‘No fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children.’ 

Six parents sued the Palmdale California School District after finding out their kids had been asked a series of sexual questions in class. They included asking the children about the frequency of ‘touching my private parts too much; thinking about having sex; thinking about touching other people’s private parts; thinking about sex when I don’t want to; washing myself because I feel dirty on the inside; not trusting people because they might want sex; getting scared or upset when I think about sex; having sex feelings in my body; can’t stop thinking about sex; and getting upset when people talk about sex.’ The controversy began in 2001 when a volunteer mental health counselor at Mesquite Elementary School set out to conduct a psychological assessment test of students in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th grades. The three-judge panel of the full court further ruled that parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students.”

Tom: Dave, as you know, we were reluctant even to present some of these things over the air. But, folks, think about this: this was presented to 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders in the public school—this very language here. 

The other issue that’s stunning to me, where it says, “The controversy began in 2001 when a volunteer mental health counselor” presented these things. Now, let me take our listeners back a little bit about why would a mental health counselor bring these things in? This is Freudian stuff—Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychotherapy. He said that all of our issues had to do with sexual ideas, sexual frustrations, and they’re apparent in children between the ages of one and five or six-years old. This is a Freudian myth that is being now presented to our children in the public schools. This whole thing is a lie from the get-go, and now the courts are saying we have to let this happen in our schools.

Dave: You know, Tom—well, just simple common sense would tell the court and anyone else they are raising questions that these kids never even thought of. Now they’re starting them on the road from which they claim they want to cure them. So as it has been well-said, psychology is the only profession that causes the diseases from which it claims to cure people. So that’s number one; that’s simple logic. Why do you want to start them thinking in the direction of something that you say, “Well, if you think too much about this, you’ve got some kind of a neurosis.” Well, you are creating it. 

This is a real growth industry, psychology. You create the problems, and then you pretend to cure them, number one. Number two, Tom, I can well understand that the details of mathematics that are taught, or history, or economics, or whatever it may be—the “reading, writing, and arithmetic,” as they say—we can’t really have parents looking over our shoulders and approving of everything that we teach in this regard. But these happen to be morals. This is outside the province of public school teachers. What is this? Is this religion? This is intrusion in the private thoughts of children. It has nothing to do with education, absolutely nothing to do with education, but of course the state is trying to make it a part of education and, you know, we’ve documented it in books and so forth. The psychologists are determined to take over this country, and they are going to decide what sanity is, they’re going to decide what thoughts you can have…

In fact, they have—and again, we’ve documented this—they’ve even suggested that they should be able to give psychological tests to people who are running for public office, or to those who are in public office, to make sure that they don’t have tendencies toward aggression, starting wars, and so forth. And as we’ve often pointed out, psychology is not a science. 

But, Tom, this is the area of morals. The parents ought to have the final say in that area. The school system is intruding themselves into an area where they have no right to go.

Tom: Dave, this is a battle. It’s really a battle for our children, and you’ve just articulated the heart and mind of psychotherapy intruding itself into our lives. 

But what about the courts here? How is it they’re backed up by the courts of the land? That’s what’s frightening.

Dave: Tom, because, as you know, the psychologists have somehow brainwashed society into thinking that this is a science. And again, we document that so thoroughly in the books The New Spirituality, for example, in Seduction of Christianity, in Beyond Seduction…

Tom: And the video we hope to release: Psychology and the Church: Critical Questions, Crucial Answers.

Dave: But, Tom, psychology is not a science. In fact, there was a lengthy study—it took several years, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It involved about 80 scholars, and the question was, “Is psychology a science?” And they concluded it is not a science, and it cannot be a science. If you can make a science out of human behavior, then you’ve turned human beings into robots, stimulus response organisms without morals, without understanding, but they just respond to stimuli. 

So, Tom, I’m really upset by this court decision, but the courts believe that the psychologists and psychiatrists, they have the last word, and there are so many books written by psychologists and psychiatrists themselves…

Tom: Research psychologists and psychiatrists.

Dave: Yes, I’m thinking of Thomas Szasz, one of the world’s leading research psychiatrists. One of his books is titled The Myth of Psychotherapy. And I’m thinking of Lawrence LeShan who, when he was president of the American Psychological Association, said, “Psychotherapy will be known as the hoax of the 20th century.” And yet they have deceived the world into thinking it’s true. 

Thomas Szasz said, “You want to know what we’ve done? We’ve turned the salvation of sinful souls into the cure of sick minds. You Christians ought to take this back in the church. We have nothing to offer.” 

And, Tom, we could just multiply such quotations, and yet the courts are accepting this as a science, and then basing their rules upon that myth.