MassResistance affiliate in Omaha

“Comprehensive sex-ed” battle in Omaha gets huge coverage in state’s largest newspaper

MassResistance affiliate group forces issue into statewide spotlight

Surprisingly unbiased coverage of hot-button topic by ultra-liberal newspaper

Sex-ed program more radical than most parents realize, article reveals

March 14 2017

On Sunday morning, Feb. 12, three-quarters of the front page of Nebraska's largest newspaper was about the boiling "comprehensive sex-ed" controversy in Omaha. Ignited by parents who refuse to take "no" for an answer!

The fight by parents and citizens to stop the explicit “comprehensive sex-ed” being pushed into the Omaha Public Schools (OPS) has exploded in the statewide media.

On Sunday morning, Feb. 12, an article in Nebraska’s largest newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald, devoted three-quarters of its front page and nearly five more full inside pages to an article describing the controversy. What the school system had hoped would be a quiet introduction of the material into the curriculum has now become a firestorm, thanks to a strong, dedicated group of pro-family people who refused to give up.

The article went on for several more pages inside the paper..

The battle over Comprehensive Sex Ed

Nebraskans for Founders Values (NFV), a MassResistance affiliate, has over 100 of its most dedicated members in the Omaha area. Last year the Omaha School Board approved a sweeping “Comprehensive Sex Ed” (CSE) curriculum after a very contentious battle to stop it.

NFV members came and filled this School Board meeting - and many others!

Since then, NVF has relentlessly challenged the School Board about the explicit and sexual material and radical “transgender” ideology included in the program.  

NFV members have focused thousands of hours in this fight against OPS. “We know that the domino effect will start across the other 250+ public schools in Nebraska if we don’t stop it here,” said Mark Bonkiewicz, Executive Director of NFV.

The OPS administration and School Board have continuously attempted to confuse, mislead, and demean the parents who tried to find out more information about the program, the opt-out procedures, and how the topics were chosen.

This poster, reproduced in the newspaper article, captures the attitude of the OPS staff toward the children in Omaha.

Throughout the summer of 2016, NVF held 27 information sessions about the program in a wide spectrum of Christian churches across Omaha. Most parents knew almost nothing about it. Then in September, the NVF parents conducted a city-wide campaign outside of the middle schools to encourage parents to opt-out, and passed out flyers and opt-out forms. Hundreds of parents opted-out their children.

And this is the reaction of parents after they saw what was to be taught to children.

The OPS administration quickly retaliated with a citywide disinformation campaign to attempt to debunk the parents’ examples from the curriculum. They claimed the the schools had recently “modified” and “deleted” some of the objectionable parts that the parents had cited. But that was clearly just a tactic to mislead the community about the true direction of the program.

How the newspaper presented it – and what it reveals

Nobody has stood up and confronted both the OPS administration, the School Board, and the LGBT movement as relentlessly and publicly as NVF has, and it seemed to be only a matter of time before the media would need to seriously cover it. But how would they do it?

The Omaha World-Herald is owned by financier Warren Buffett. The Buffett family supports numerous left-wing causes, including groups that promote sexuality and LGBT programs in the schools. Like most of the mainstream media, the Omaha newspaper leans far to the left. And with such a large article as dominated that Sunday’s issue, one would expect the worst.

But surprisingly, the article was relatively fair and balanced. Although it tries to present the CSE program in a positive light, the facts they include make it difficult. You still have to read between the lines to get what’s really happening, but it’s better than anyone expected.

Basically, here’s what stands out to us:

1. The reporters take everything the school tells them at face value, without challenging it. But the OPS administration – like most school administrations we’ve seen – has a record of being misleading, leaving things out, and not always telling the truth when it comes to these divisive issues.

2. The sex-ed, homosexuality, transgenderism lessons that the OPS administration admits to presenting teenagers are not only outrageously age-inappropriate, but are saturated with radical LGBT ideology that is incongruent with actual science.

3. The OPS staff was clearly not at all interested in the moral or religious sensibilities of the Omaha parents. They are at odds with them. Despite what they told the newspaper, it’s very clear that their approach was to put in the most radical and extreme program possible, and then wait for the reaction from the community, then modify it if forced to.

4. The “fixes” that the OPS staff made to the examples cited by the newspaper seem mostly cosmetic and don’t change the real message of the lessons. The things that they say have been completely taken out may likely find their way back in a different form. And there may be other objectionable things that the parents haven’t found yet.

5. OPS cites an unnamed 2015 survey by the Centers for Disease Control to claim that over 40% of all high school students have been sexually active. This is likely the “Youth Risk Behavior Survey” [LINK] which is blatantly unscientific and misleading.

5. OPS spent over $360,000 on Comprehensive Sex Ed materials. Why? How?

The battle continues

Nebraskans for Family Values has brought this important battle before the whole city.

There’s no question that the NFV parents – and the whole Omaha community – need to continue to force the School Board to discontinue the entire program. They bring up horrific topics that most children would never think of on their own, and drill harmful ideas into their heads. This is radical, unscientific, and destructive to youth.  

Bonkiewicz concluded, “Our team can’t thank MassResistance enough for all the help they have given us – in coaching, tactics, encouragement, and everything else.” We are pleased that NFV is taking on this fight for the parents across Omaha, and we are proud to be a part of it.

NFV has been doing even more pro-family activism in Nebraska, and we will be reporting on it in upcoming articles.