MFI believes that the best place for youth to learn about sex is in the home, within the context of a loving and trusting parent-child relationship. Parents are the primary teachers of their children and as such, they are uniquely qualified to provide the moral framework needed for healthy sex education. In our hyper-sexualized culture, students receive many negative messages about sex. Meaningful conversations with parents are the most effective way to counteract these destructive messages and to equip and empower young people to remain abstinent until marriage.

We do acknowledge that not every student has the support they need at home and some students might benefit from biologically based sex education in school. Research has shown that Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) programs produce the best outcomes by encouraging youth to avoid risky behaviors that lead to emotional, physical, and spiritual harm. SRA programs emphasize developing healthy relationships and delaying sexual activity until marriage, communicating the clear message that sexual delay is the only 100% effective way to avoid pregnancy, STIs and other negative consequences of teen sex.

Unfortunately, instead of implementing a healthy SRA approach to sex ed in our public schools, our state legislature, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Planned Parenthood, and others are pushing to mandate a much different approach to sex ed through the use of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) curriculum. CSE is a specific type of graphic sexuality education that promotes sexual rights for children and serves as a how-to manual, encouraging teens to become sexually active. In fact, nearly 1 in 4 teens who receive this type of sex ed say that it makes them feel like having sex is an expectation. Equally concerning is that CSE is designed to change the sexual and gender norms of society by promoting diverse sexualities and perpetuating the dangerous transgender trend affecting our youth.

Currently in the Commonwealth, teaching sex ed is at the discretion of local school districts and those that do choose to teach it have full control over what curriculum they use. If our legislators and Planned Parenthood have their way though, local control will be taken away and put into the hands of bureaucrats. The Sex-Ed Mandate, SB 2459 and HB 410, give full authority to DESE to dictate the use of only CSE curriculum for those districts who decide to include sex ed in their health lessons. The MA State Senate passed this legislation with a 33-2 vote on January 16, 2020. The House version of the bill has not yet been brought for a vote.

In an effort to mobilize a grassroots movement of parents and concerned citizens to sound the alarm about the implementation of CSE in our schools and to push back against the loss of local control over educational decisions, the Massachusetts Informed Parents (MIP) initiative was launched in the fall of 2019 as an outreach of MFI. MIP endeavors to equip parents to protect their kids through the sharing of relevant information, including articles, research, and exhibits from the curriculum, and by providing tools and strategies for helping parents to effect change in their local communities. MIP is growing a large coalition of parents and faith and community leaders by leveraging the power of social media and by fostering one on one relationships through parent forums being held across the state. To stay informed on issues related to sex education and for updates on the Sex-Ed Mandate legislation, join the MIP group on FB. Contact Mary Ellen Siegler if you would like to schedule a parent forum for your church or community group.

For more information on CSE visit Stop CSE to watch a short movie and to view harm analyses of the curricula.

For more information on SRA curricula visit We Ascend.

Click MIP Parent Forum Flyer to learn more about our parent information forums.

Click MIP Action Item List to learn what you can do to protect your child from CSE being taught in MA public schools.

Use our sample letter to request information about sex ed curriculum being used in your child’s school: Sample Sex Ed Curriculum Request. Forward the information you receive back to Mary Ellen Siegler.

Use our sample letters to opt your child out of sex ed class: English Opt Out Letter and Spanish Opt Our Letter.