A flyer advertising a sex therapist’s “Raising Sexually Healthy Children” workshop hosted by the Greely Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) was given out to some 1st and 3rd grade students in Maine School Administrative District #51 (MSAD #51).
The issue of the flyer, which came as part of MSAD #51 Superintendent Jeff Porter’s Sept. 22 District Newsletter, was raised at Tuesday night’s Cumberland Town Council Meeting by Cumberland parent Scott Jordan, who asked the Councilors if they felt the flyer was appropriate to be seen by 1st and 3rd grade students.
The flyer, normally available digitally only as part of the newsletter, had been “sent home to some students through random teachers,” according to Jordan.
Councilor Ronald Copp told Jordan that his grandchildren brought the flyer home, and that it should have been put in an email or put in an envelope so students would not be able to read it.
“It does not warrant a 1st grader reading this, so, that’s just my opinion of it,” Copp said.
“So if I’m hearing you correctly, you agree that that’s inappropriate for a 1st grader to be seeing — and a 3rd grader?” Jordan asked Copp.
“I do, yes,” Copp replied.
The flyer is an advertisement for a October “mini-workshop” led by social worker and sex therapist Jennifer Wiessner, and hosted by the Greely PTO as part of their Parent University programming.
Wiessner, who describes herself as a “Kink and Poly aware therapist,” charges clients $160 per 50 minutes of sex therapy, according to her website.
The Greely PTO-sponsored workshop is targeted towards the sexual education of prepubescent children from birth to age 9.
“Welcome parents and grandparents and all adults who influence children!” the flyer reads. “Come get an overview of what you can do as an adult in a child’s life to help support and encourage healthy sexuality.”
According to the flyer, the topics covered in the mini-workshop include boundaries, consent, healthy body, safety, and “guiding [children] with solid resources.”
“[The workshop] will help you raise your comfort level with talking with your children about their amazing bodies and sexuality,” the flyer states.
MSAD #51 Superintendent Jeff Porter told the Maine Wire in an email Wednesday that he was aware of the workshop being held, but was not aware that it had been sent home with students in his district.
“I was aware of the Parent University workshop being held by the PTO as we included the information in the district’s newsletter, which is digital only and is sent directly to parents and community members who subscribe to it,” Superintendent Porter wrote.
“Though I am aware that hard copy fliers go home on occasion from the PTO, I was not aware that this flier had gone home with students,” Porter said. “The PTO is pre-approved to send home hard copies of fliers as they are a community partner, so we do not require pre-approval of their fliers in advance.”
“That being said, I understand and agree with the concerns raised,” he added, agreeing that the content of the flyer is inappropriate for students. “We have reached out to the PTO as fliers with this topic should not have been sent home with students.”
7 Comments
“It will help to raise your comfort level” These people like the climate the earth is coming to an end) crowd, just don’t give up.
It is a terribly written flyer with run-on sentences but the content is not over the top. I am the most conservative family therapist you will find and I have doen workshops like this for parents of young children at church groups. Sexuality is formed in the early years, and comes from the healthy relationships children have with parents and peers and the messages they receive about their bodies. How parents re-direct boys who touch themselves and girls who like to rub on everything is important. If you are a parent you know about these things. It is also important that children see healthy heterosexual relationships around them in which parents are outwardly affectionate and loving. Also, parental touch is extremely important. There is a lot of research that fathers rough-housing with their girls for instance contributes to health sexual development. It teaches girls what healthy men are like and helps them avoid dysfunctional men in the future. A cold aand detached mom does not facilitate healthy sexuality, and especially if she comveys disdain for me. Boyss also need strong heterosexual male role models to learn how to express their masculine sex role. Modeling is extremely important.
Having said all of that, we are seeing the damage and potential child abuse that comes from sick sexual perverts acting out their dysfunction and their politics with their children. I saw nothing about polyamory or queerness in the flyer. I assume it is listed elsewhere. In my experience queer people are almost always under-developed sexually, sex addicted, abuse survivors, suffering from personality disorders, autism or all of this combined. Queer parents raise sexually confused kids too. They should not be having children.
Sorry about the typos above.
Hello,
Thanks for your perspective I truly appreciate it. That said we will have to agree to disagree.
Just as an FYI – The individual teaching this workshop teaches poly as well.
This is part of the WHO/UN’s playbook on Pedaphilia.
Wrong is wrong no matter what label you put on it.
I think if kids in the first grade can read this flyer (which seems unobjectionable to me), we should congratulate them on their reading skill! Chances are they won’t read it!
I don’t understand – several years ago, someone offered Zumba lessons on Main Street in Kennebunk that turned out not to be Zumba. Now here’s a women selling sex talks with kids at $160 that may not be “therapy”. Zumba was much cheaper.
Two terms in this flyer stand out to me, “Sexually Healthy Children” and “Caregivers”. I don’t have a problem with the terms themselves but rather with their Orwellian doublespeak usage.
Start with “caregivers”, a term used in healthcare where people in need of medical care rely on caregivers. Healthy people don’t generally have caregivers. So, the use of caregivers implies that the children are not healthy and need help getting themselves back to good health. Seeing parents as “caregivers” diminishes the role parents play in raising healthy children.
But this second term, “Sexually Healthy Children”, seems to be referring to children who have been exposed to, understand, and accept as normal the deviant and unhealthy behavior that is being pushed by schools these days, behavior which even includes puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and trans-gender surgery, surgical removal of girls’ breasts and the sex organs of both boys and girls. How can we be so foolish as to accept that those things make children sexually healthy? What fools we have become!