School officials in Tennessee were forced to apologize after second-graders at an elementary school in Sullivan County were handed fliers promoting free birth control services.
The fliers sparked outrage among some conservative Christian parents and activists, who accused school officials of teaching children as young as seven about condoms and birth controls pills, which runs counter to their religious beliefs.
Sullivan County Director of Schools David Cox contended during last week’s school board meeting that the information about contraceptives ended up on the fliers by accident.
Handout hullabaloo: This flier advertising a free health clinic in Tennessee raised the heckles of Christian parents and activists after it was handed out to students as young as seven
Conservative Christian pastor Richard Penkoski expressed outrage over the fliers
Rev Richard Penkoski, a controversial pastor who runs the hard-line online ministry Warriors for Christ, attended the meeting and lashed out at administrators over the fliers advertising, among other medical services, free birth control during a clinic at Appalachian Fairgrounds in Gray, Tennessee, on November 1-3, reported Kingsport Times-News.
The clinic was organized by Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps to provide a range of medical, dental, vision and family planning services free of charge to low-income families in the area.
Printouts promoting the three-day event were given earlier this month to second-grade students at Mary Hughes Elementary School in Piney Flats, among them Penkoski’s son, to take home to their parents.
One side of the page advertised medical, vision and dental services, while the other promoted birth control services.
The firebrand pastor, whose religious group is known for protesting Drag Queen Story Hour events at public libraries all across the country, and vocally opposing homosexuality and abortion, demanded to know why this material was put in front of his seven-year-old son.
Penkoski (left and right) and Dale Walker, president of the conservative Tennessee Pastor’s Network (pictured right in a suit) voiced their opposition to the fliers during a school board meeting last Thursday
‘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?’ he asked during the meeting last Thursday.
Director of Schools Cox explained that the information contained in the fliers was provided in the form of PDF files by East Tennessee State University on behalf of the Remote Are Medical Volunteer Corp, and that the handouts were then printed at the school back-to-back, even though the part about birth control services was never meant to be given out to second-graders.
‘I wish that this part had not been distributed,’ Cox said. ‘The school regrets that the information was shared that was upsetting to some families.’
Printouts promoting a three-day free health clinic were given on November 1 to second-grade students at Mary Hughes Elementary School in Piney Flats, among them Penkoski’s son
Penkoski, who in the past publicly opposed the adoption of a textbook about world religions because he deemed it too focused on Islam, dismissed Cox’s explanation and pointed a finger of blame at the principal of his son’s school.
He told The Christian Post the flyer was a ‘direct attack’ on the values and beliefs he teaches to his children, namely, that all premarital sex is sin and that the only valid form of birth control is abstinence, of which there was no mention in the handout, as he pointed out.
Sullivan County Director of Schools David Cox contended that the information about contraceptives ended up on the fliers by accident
‘The public schools think they have the right to usurp my authority as their father,’ Penkoski fulminated. ‘This school does not have that right.’
The pastor lamented that the incident with the flier ‘almost forced’ him to talk to his seven-year-old son about sex.
Penkoski was not the only person to express concern over the fliers during the meeting.
Dale Walker, president of the conservative Tennessee Pastor’s Network, called for the principal and the teachers who distributed the handouts to second-graders to be held accountable for exposing the children to information their parents might fight objectionable on religious grounds.
‘This garbage in this flyer is anything but Christian values and Christian families have the right to be upset about it,’ Walker said.
Cox promised that the school district will review its policies and practices concerning the distributing of such information.