Parental Rights Rhetoric Puts Students At Greater Risk (pt. 1)
If you are genuinely concerned about kids, you will care about the facts
Bigots don’t care about facts (Part one of two)
“The biggest impediment to detection and prevention of sexual grooming is that it remains unclear which sexual grooming behaviors may differ from normal adult/child interactions.” — Jeglic & Winters
A 2023 research article highlighted the greatest risk factors for grooming for the purposes of child sexual abuse. Their research identified significant differences between “normative” (healthy) interactions between adults and children, and grooming behaviours.
None of the risk factors include teaching sexual education.
The authors summarized their research problem as defining clear, observable differences between normal (safe) interactions and grooming behaviours for parents, caregivers, and others who work with children.
While people who genuinely care about protecting children are interested in pursuing the facts around how to spot red flags and keep our children safe from harm, the “parental rights” movement is doing the exact opposite.
They’re pointing fingers at other parents, teachers, and librarians, accusing our public schools of attempting to indoctrinate their children with “gender ideology” (translation: the bigots are transphobes).
They’re wasting countless hours in meetings, insisting on having their harmful messages heard. Hours which administrators, librarians, and others could be using to actually help kids.
Most dangerously, by directing everyone’s attention at civil servants, they’re actually helping the real predators by giving them cover and a scapegoat. We’re busy fighting about which books should be available in libraries while some opportunistic pedophiles have unsupervised access to vulnerable minors.
Get a fucking grip.
The saga continues…
The bigots persist, spreading misinformation and outright lies to support their anti-2s+LGBTQ (patricianly anti-trans) agenda. They try to appeal to the emotions and fear of uneducated citizens, scaring them into joining their campaign, lest the children be put at risk.
If you’re one of those folks who doesn’t know a lot about what the research actually says, and you’re watching the words being thrown back and forth between the left-wing liberal “snowflakes” and the right-wing conservative bigots, I will try to provide some clear, (relatively) unbiased information here.
I say “relatively” unbiased, because no human can be 100% neutral, especially in the face of hate. I would likely be considered one of those left-wing liberal “snowflakes” by the alt-right, but I am also an academic. I spend much of my days reading as well as writing.
While I certainly hold some very strong opinions, I make significant effort to listen and learn from diverse perspectives, and to focus on what the best evidence can teach us. I try to wade through the bullshit, the emotion-laden hyperbole, and focus on facts.
I will lay out the three most common arguments wielded by the alt-right about comprehensive sexual education (CSE) in school and do my best to explain what the data has shown. The first two are below, with the third to follow.
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