It should go without saying that parents should have the final say over their children. From the food they eat, to the clothes they wear, to the content they consume, parents can and should play the leading role in the upbringing of their children.
That oversight is especially important when it comes to a child’s education. Parents are expecting schools to help shape and mold young minds, but there is still an unspoken agreement between the two that the parents will have the final say. If this agreement didn’t inherently exist, there would be no point in things like permission slips.
For one mother of six in Australia, it was beyond unacceptable when a school broke that trust by exposing her daughter to horribly disturbing content.
What happened to Nicki Gaylard’s daughter?
When her daughter was just 14, her life was upended by a lesson delivered at her school by a third-party provider. Nicki’s daughter was subjected to graphic, traumatic content as part of this lesson. But just as concerningly, no parents were notified.
In fact, not only were parents kept in the dark about this, but there was no chance for any students to opt out of this disturbing content. Additionally, there were no teachers present in this room while this third-party provider shared the “lesson.”
This ““comprehensive sexuality education” lesson delved into dark and disturbing territory.
Children should never be sexualized and parents should never be kept in the dark about these sorts of things. These are common-sense protections for children that everyone should be able to agree on.
Without these common-sense protections, it’s the children who suffer.
How did this affect Nicki Gaylard’s daughter?
Despite only being an hour long, the “comprehensive sexuality education” presentation sufficiently traumatized Nicki’s daughter and her classmates.
Nicki has expressed that, sadly, even her daughter’s relationships with her siblings were negatively impacted by the traumatic incident.
Nicki’s daughter has not returned to the school. Nicki is working hard to help her daughter heal, but it’s not an easy task. Furthermore, Nicki withdrew her children from the school, stating that she could not risk their exposure to unsupervised and inappropriate sexual content within the school environment.
“It’s deeply unsettling to see the impact that one hour of extremely inappropriate content has had on my daughter’s health and wellbeing,” Nicki said. “My authority as a parent to protect my child was completely circumvented by the secretive nature of this program and material.”
What happened to this family should concern all parents. Nicki, for one, is committed to doing something about it.
Nicki Gaylard pursues legal action after being kept in the dark
Despite being a prominent entity that presents content across multiple schools, the third-party education provider (called “headspace”) hasn’t allowed Nicki to view a PowerPoint of the presented material. The group “headspace” further refused to disclose any of its materials to concerned parents like Nicki.
Nicki has stated that she took this case forward “because I’m seeking justice for my daughter, who was deeply affected by what she saw that day. Her childhood was shortened through exposure to completely inappropriate material that headspace won’t even let me see.
“How can they be happy to show to children what they are ashamed to show to adults? Let children be children.”
Nicki is pursuing legal action against the Department of Education in Australia. The Department has since admitted that there were procedural failures (parents not being notified, material not being properly vetted, a lack of teachers present in the room). Such admissions, sadly, don’t undo the damage to her daughter, and so Nicki is pushing forward with her legal action.
One major reason for the continued push is that Nicki also made clear that this mission was bigger than just her children.
“I’m also looking to take this forward for the sake of other kids across the country who shouldn’t have to go through what my daughter went through; and for all the parents who should never be sidestepped in this way,” Nicki added. “That is, after all, our right and our duty as parents – and school authorities should respect our authority to determine what’s appropriate for our kids.”
And Nicki is completely correct. Parents have been and always should be the ultimate authority when it comes to how their children are raised.
The global concerns about “comprehensive sexuality education”
While Nicki is in Australia, this doesn’t mean this issue is exclusive to there. In fact, these sorts of situations are happening in classrooms all across the world. And it’s thanks to the proliferation of what’s known as a “comprehensive sexuality education,” or CSE, agenda.
“Sadly, Nicki’s case is an example of a larger pattern. Increasingly, parents are discovering that radical approaches to sex education – often shaped by internationally-developed curricula and promoted by activist groups at the national level – are being quietly rolled out,” Robert Clarke, Director of Advocacy for ADF International, said of CSE.
Driven in large part by the UN, including the World Health Organization, CSE introduces children in classrooms around the world to graphic sexual content. CSE is an ideologically fueled approach to sex education built on the idea that children are sexual beings from birth and have independent “sexual rights,” including claims related to gender identity ideology.
And this framework directly violates parents’ universally-recognized human right to guide the moral and religious education of their children, to say nothing of the way it undermines the best interests of the child.
“This case is about drawing a firm line: parental rights matter, transparency matters, and safeguarding children is not optional,” Robert said.
ADF International is standing with parents against the scourge of CSE, and is legally supporting Nicki as she pursues justice.
You can read more about Nicki’s case here.
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