Tenn. Dad Outraged After 7-Year-Old Son Comes Home From School With Flyer Advertising Free Condoms, Birth Control

Brittany M. Hughes | November 12, 2019
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One Tennessee dad is up in arms (not literally, since we’re all sensitive about such things these days) over a sex ed flyer he says his 7-year-old, second-grade son came home with from school, which advertised free condoms and birth control at an event put on by a local health clinic.

That’s second grade, in case you missed it. Second grade.

According to this, Richard Penkoski let loose during a Sullivan County school board meeting over a flyer the school handed out to small children promoting “free dental, medical and vision services,” along with “free birth control and pre-pregnancy services” from the Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps.

According to a photo of the flyer itself, the free clinic event, hosted at the Appalachian Fairgrounds in Gray, Tenn., reportedly  also advertised “implants, [intrauterine devices], pills, condoms and more," along with prenatal vitamins and "pre-pregnancy counseling."

Ed

“What is more, exactly? And why was this given to my 7 year old?" Penkoski demanded during the school board meeting. “Since when is it the school’s job to give information to my child about birth control? When did the public schools decide they can teach my child issues regarding morality and sex?”

“I know liberals on this council, specifically, will say something like, ‘Well, schools teach reproduction.’ You are right,” he went on. “They do teach biological facts in regard to reproduction. This flyer is not talking about reproduction. It teaches birth control. I also can’t help but notice that abstinence is not on this list.” 

“Sullivan County Director of Schools David Cox admitted Thursday that the flyers promoting birth control were passed out unintentionally. According to the Kingsport Times-News, Cox explained that all schools in the district distributed the flyers promoting the RAM Clinic,” the Christian Post explains adding that “The aim was to make sure that financially challenged families were aware of the three-day health clinic opportunity.”

Cox said the back of the flyer, where ads for free birth control and contraceptives were included, was an oversight.

Penkoski, on the other hand, says that explanation is total crap.

“[The school] received two pages and what the principal did was he took the two pages and put them back-to-back to make one copy,” Penkoski told CP. “Part of it was to save paper but you can’t miss that. It is a whole page and right at the top there are big bold letters that say ‘birth control’ and ‘pre-pregnancy’ and all that stuff.” 

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