Have sex, do drugs,' speaker tells students*

'Men with men, women and women, whatever combination you would like'

Posted: May 22, 2007

A guest speaker at an assembly at Boulder High School in Colorado has
told students as young as 14 to go have sex and use drugs, prompting
school officials to say they will investigate.

The instructions came from Joel Becker, an associate clinical professor
of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles.

"I am going to encourage you to have sex and encourage you to use drugs
appropriately," Becker said during his appearance at the school as part
of a recent panel sponsored by the University of Colorado's Conference
on World Affairs.

"Why I am going to take that position is because you are going to do it
anyway," he continued. "I think as a psychologist and health educator,
it is more important to educate you in a direction that you might
actually stick to. So, I am going to stay mostly on with the sex side
because that is the area I know more about. I want to encourage you to
all have healthy, sexual behavior."

Similar assemblies that have been used by schools to promote
homosexuality, including one where parents were banned from the event,
and a second where  school officials ordered their 14-year-old freshman
class into a "gay" indoctrination seminar after having them sign a
confidentiality agreement promising not to tell their parents.

The Boulder school review promise came from board members who were
confronted by Boulder High sophomore Daphne White and her mother,
Priscilla White, with their complaint about the event.

Priscilla White told board members it's inappropriate for such a message
to be delivered by a public school. She was reading excerpts of the
presentation to the board when board President Helayne Jones told her to
stop, because the language was inappropriate.

"The panel discussion was a completely irresponsible and dangerous
invitation to Boulder High students to have sex and take drugs," her
daughter, Daphne, told the board.

No student should have been forced to be at that panel discussion,
incoming Boulder Valley Supt. Chris King agreed.

The panel included Becker; Andree Gerhardt, a community engagement
leader with Ernst & Young; Antonio Sacre, an LA-based performing artist,
and Sanho Tree, of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.

They were assembled for the discussion as part of the university's
Conference on World Affairs, which has been described as a forum for
anything.

Conference leaders issued a statement, signed by conference director Jim
Palmer and others, saying the panel members talked "candidly and
sensibly to the high school audience, providing cautionary information
about alcohol consumption, drugs, sexual issues and teens."

The sophomore, Daphne, had been required to attend the panel called
"STDs: Sex, Teens and Drugs," and accused panel members of presenting
one-sided views and discrediting abstinence.

The White family said the conference statement wasn't even accurate.

"The panelists irresponsibly advised Boulder High students to have sex
and use drugs," the family responded. "Teenage abstinence was dismissed
as an unwise choice and indicative of religious hang-ups."

"It may be true that the Conference on World Affairs generally 'fosters
awareness of local, national and global citizenship and celebrates
intellectual discussion and excellence.' It did not in this case," the
family continued. "As Daphne suggested at the [recent] school board
meeting, Boulder High School, the school district and the CWA should
host an assembly at Boulder High for the student body. Hopefully the
principal, the deputy superintendent, the board president and the
director of the CWA would use the opportunity to offer Boulder High
students some sound advice that is more consistent with what teens
should hear from adults. They need to do it quickly, graduation is June 2."

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly said Boulder already is known as a "far left" town.

He played a recorded of an "unidentified male" saying: "We all
experiment. It's very natural for young people to experiment with same
sex relationships. When you are 13, 12, 13, 14 certainly probably one of
the most appropriate sexual behaviors would be masturbation. Even today,
there are psychiatrists who will do sessions under the influence of
ecstasy. If I had some maybe I'd do it with someone, but you know."

The transcript showed those comments also were from Becker.

Dan Caplis, a lawyer and radio talk-show host on KHOW Radio, said the
principal should have been fired, but wasn't.

"We had the president of the school board on, as well as the head of the
school district. And they just kept dodging us. Finally, we pinned them
down and we said don't you agree this was harmful, this was dangerous?
Finally, they agreed to that," Caplis reported.

"These experts came in to undermine and contradict everything most
parents at that school are trying to teach their kids about sex and
drugs. And I believe that a lot of those parents are ready to fight
back. But we'll find out in the next few days," Caplis said.

"Perhaps we should open a new wing of the high school and name it 'The
Young Brothel Wing,'" wrote an unidentified contributor on a local blog.

Added Louise Benson, on another: "The attitude towards the Whites and
the wildly left-wing agenda at BHS as represented by the amazing
thinking that a panel encouraging sex and drugs would be just fine is
one reason families are fleeing public schools.

"The culture wars really are in full swing in schools," she said.

Zelda, on her "Sleeping Ugly" blog, said parents need to be informed and
candid on issues with their children. Addressing the panelists, she
wrote, "You, on the other hand, could be a pervert who gets his jollies
by talking about sex with minors. And another of my responsibilities as
a parent is to make sure you don't have access to my kids until I know
for sure you don't have an ulterior motive."

Her conclusion? "Strike 7,867,960,071 against public education."

The conference was begun in 1948 to discuss international affairs, but
has expanded to become a conference, as it describes itself, on
"Everything Conceivable."

Past participants include Henry Kissinger, Yitzhak Rabin, Eleanor
Roosevelt, Ted Turner, Arianna Huffington, Ralph Nader and George McGovern.