Clarendon School District 3’s new superintendent, Connie Dennis, has ended her district’s sex education curriculum partnership with neighboring Clarendon District 2… this just a few weeks after a coarsely-worded sex-ed survey shocked District 2 middle school students and parents.

USC Professor Robert "Skip" Valois, PhD

The questionable survey was provided by USC Professor Robert “Skip” Valois, PhD, an ardent supporter of “safer sex” ideology. His 17-page survey asked students about sexual behaviors and attitudes that would make even the average parent, much less the average pre-teen, a bit uncomfortable.

Here are just a few of the questions from the survey. Be forewarned, some of these questions are highly graphic in nature…

• Have you ever put your mouth on your partner’s penis or vagina or has your partner ever put their mouth on your penis or vagina (some people call this “giving or receiving oral sex”).
• During the past 3 months, how many different people did you receive oral sex from?
• Have you ever had sexual intercourse (male penis in female vagina)?
• How old were you when you had sexual intercourse for the first time?
• When you had sexual intercourse for the first time, how old was your partner?
• During your life, with how many people have you had sexual intercourse?
• During the past 3 months, with how many people did you have sexual intercourse?
• When was the last time you had sexual intercourse?
• Did you drink alcohol or use drugs before you had sexual intercourse the last time?
• The last time you had sexual intercourse, did you or your partner use a condom?
• During the past 12 months, how many times did you try to get pregnant or try to make someone pregnant?

After outraged parents called her office about the survey, District 3’s Dennis said, “I work with my community.” She said the groundswell of opposition has confirmed her desire to look for an alternative program for her schools.

State law requires that sex education programs in public schools include a strong emphasize on abstinence education, and there are a number of programs in South Carolina proving themselves with impressive results.

While the state average for 16 year-olds abstaining from sexual activity is 48%, over a five-year period, 82% of the 16 year-old students enrolled in Heritage Community Services‘ Heritage Keepers program reported abstaining from sexual activity the year prior. At the same time, program students also initiated sex at half the rate of students not involved in the program.

“We’ve been providing result-oriented authentic abstinence education services in South Carolina public schools for more than 10 years now. We know our program works because independent evaluations tell us that we are having a positive effect on student behavior,” said Heritage Community Services founder Anne Badgley.

Heritage Keepers’ students are surveyed using questions developed by nationally renowned abstinence education researcher Stan Weed, PhD. “Unlike some evaluation tools, Dr. Weed’s surveys are age-appropriate and measure the immediate influence of our program as well as its impact on behavior a year later,” Badgley added.

In recent testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Dr. Weed stated, “Taken together, a pattern of scientific evidence is emerging that indicates abstinence-centered sex education programs, if properly designed and implemented, can cut rates of teen sexual activity by as much as half for significant periods of time without reducing condom use by the sexually active.”

Heritage has approached Clarendon School District 3 with an alternate sex education plan for this school year. Hopefully administrators and parents will get behind an effective program like the one Heritage offers and create a win-win option for parents, schools and students.

VERY Busy day today – sorry for how late this is getting posted! With the convention in full gear, we didn’t have many moments to spare…

We opened up with another delegation breakfast, this one a joint deal with New Hampshire. It was an opportunity for the McCain campaign to thank the two states that gave him early primary victories.

We heard from the Secretary of Commerce, then a former POW who had been in the Hanoi Hilton with Senator McCain.

After remarks from Senator Lindsey Graham, Cindy McCain addressed the breakfast, as well as America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Unfortunately the video files are getting fought by YouTube and Blip… hopefully I’ll have those up soon.

After getting some of our marching orders for the day, a few of us headed over to a surprising symposium on education involving Speaker Newt Gingrich, MN Governor Tim Pawlenty, and … the Rev. Al Sharpton! Yes, a Republican audience gave Al Sharpton two standing ovations! Shocking stuff, I tell ya… The crux of the argument is choosing children over bureaucrats – including merit pay for teachers and more market based reforms (school choice, anyone?) American Solutions has more information and the video here.

Then it was off to lunch with the delegation – and two very special guests, the Ambassadors from India and New Zealand. Congressman Joe Wilson made some remarks on the importance of US-India relations, and emphasized the SC ties with India. And the food was awesome…

Then we headed over to another restaurant in town (the restaurant row in downtown Minneapolis is called Nicolette Mall — and it’s truly impressive…) for a reception honoring Senate Conservatives, especially Senator Jim Demint. It was great to see the Senator there as well as Governor Sanford. Because of scheduling, this was just a quick drop by before we boarded buses to cross the Mighty Mississippi for St. Paul.

As for the first full night… the video clips were amazing, especially the ones narrated by Robert Duvall and Gary Sinise.

I got to the floor for Fred’s speech… and loved every minute of it. Fred was as good as I’ve seen him all year, perhaps more comfortable singing the praises of others than he was himself during the campaign.

Then it was off to Senator Demint’s birthday party…

While so many of us may have enjoyed the lazy days of summer, it has been anything but an idle time for Planned Parenthood here in South Carolina. The group is fast expanding their footprint across the state with a brand new office opening in Charleston later this year.

Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Inc., now a four-state (SC, NC, VA & WV) powerhouse for “reproductive health services”, is forging new inroads in the low country and could soon be pulling some much stronger weight in Palmetto State politics.

These lines from their 2007 annual report make it clear…

In 2007, we recruited thousands of new advocates. We mobilized hundreds of volunteer lobbyists to meet with their state legislators and members of Congress. We encouraged dozens of supporters to submit letters to the editor and conduct voter registration drives. We need to do more.

In fact, the group is currently looking to hire a new fund raiser to “direct a development program in Coastal South Carolina and possibly state-wide”.

What does this means for conservatives? Unless we band together and strengthen our social and moral stance on issues, our once-strong voice will soon become overwhelmed by a vocal minority that is bound and determined to drive a new agenda into our communities. Just last year, they claim to have defeated 17 pro-life measures before our legislature and fought against the ultrasound bill that required women contemplating an abortion to view an ultrasound of their fetus before the procedure.

While they’re widely known and associated in conservative circles with abortion procedures, 65% of Planned Parenthood’s medical efforts are directed toward pregnancy testing, condom and contraception distribution, STD/STI testing, and an expanding research component that includes some level of new contraceptive medical testing.

Based on past history in other states, expect Planned Parenthood to push for changes in SC’s Comprehensive Health Education Act which outlines sex education guidelines for our schools. Currently, that law

• promotes abstaining from sex outside marriage
• addresses dealing with peer pressure
• limits explanations of contraception methods to the context of future family planning

We should expect that they’ll working with local school boards’ sex education committees to thwart these stated guidelines in every way possible. To see how Planned Parenthood is promoting their education agenda in other states, just take a look at www.TakeCareDownThere.org. [WARNING: Content on this site is graphic in nature.]

We’ll be working to keep you informed on these and other topics as this blog expands. If you have ideas or comments, please direct them to SCConservative@sc.rr.com.