Legislature(2015 - 2016)BUTROVICH 205
04/14/2015 08:00 AM Senate STATE AFFAIRS
Note: the audio ![]()
and video ![]()
recordings are distinct records and are obtained from different sources. As such there may be key differences between the two. The audio recordings are captured by our records offices as the official record of the meeting and will have more accurate timestamps. Use the icons to switch between them.
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB9 | |
| SB89 | |
| SB58 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SB 58 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 89 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 74 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | SB 67 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 9 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
SB 89-PARENT RIGHTS: EDUCATION; SCHOOL ABSENCE
8:09:48 AM
CHAIR STOLTZE announced the consideration of SB 89.
8:10:38 AM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI joined the committee meeting.
SENATOR MIKE DUNLEAVY, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska,
sponsor of SB 89, said the purpose of this bill is to reiterate
the inherent rights of parents. He explained that the rights of
parents have always existed and had never been extinguished. He
is reiterating these rights because recently there has been more
and more of a demand by practitioners and state and federal
agencies to assess children, to take that data and use it for
the stated purpose of trying to help improve instruction, but
also to label schools to see where they fall; whether they are
failing schools or schools that are actually assisting students.
He had no issue with that, but a growing body of parents feels
that they should be able to opt out and not be part of certain
requests. These requests are a fuzzy area, because they are
requests, but they also sometimes come across as demands - for
children to be in certain classes that parents may feel are in
conflict with their values and may even run counter to them.
He elaborate that most parents believe that you send your child
to school to learn the writing, reading, math, science, history
etc. If that's not the case, parents want to be able to exercise
their inherent rights to be able to say no to a particular
lesson or activity.
He said SB 89 also has a section that denies abortion providers
the right to be in the schools, to be able to have a captive
audience, which kids are. They should take their business
outside of schools.
8:14:00 AM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked how he defines "abortion services
provider."
SENATOR DUNLEAVY answered someone that provides abortion
services.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if Providence Hospital provides an
abortion for a woman who would otherwise die be an abortion
service provider.
SENATOR DUNLEAVY answered that there could be some individuals
that make that stretch, but generally speaking, most folks view
Providence Hospital as a medical provider.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said if they provide abortion services the
language says they are an abortion service provider. So, he
asked if someone who is volunteer at Providence Hospital be
allowed to come in to speak to a group of students.
SENATOR DUNLEAVY answered if one of the main components of the
services that they provide is abortion, then no.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI pointed out that the language just says, "A
school district may not permit an abortion services provider or
an employee or volunteer of an abortion services provider." It
doesn't say that is their main component of business. It could
be just one abortion that was maybe provided a couple of years
ago for a life-threatening case. That person would not be able
to volunteer at a school.
SENATOR DUNLEAVY responded that was not what he was saying.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if that language should be clarified.
SENATOR DUNLEAVY answered that he did not believe so. The
purpose is for those who as a main component of their business
is providing abortions and he did not believe Providence
Hospital's main function was to provide abortions.
8:16:28 AM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if abortion services provider should
be defined as some organization whose main purpose is to provide
abortions.
SENATOR DUNLEAVY answered no, although a discussion could be had
about it in committee.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked what number of abortions makes an
organization an abortion services provider.
SENATOR DUNLEAVY answered that he didn't have a particular
number. He just wanted to prevent abortion providers from having
a captive audience of children to peddle their services, values,
and ideas to. He had no issue with that if it's after school and
across the street.
8:17:46 AM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if he thinks volunteers at Providence
Hospital who perhaps perform one abortion a year are somehow
pedaling abortions for kids in elementary schools. Is there any
evidence that this is happening in schools?
SENATOR DUNLEAVY answered that he didn't believe that Providence
Hospital's main purpose is abortion.
SENATOR MCGUIRE said they are not really talking about
Providence Hospital, but it was probably worth making sure the
courts would view things not overly board. She said overall
asking a parent to intersect with a school whose values they
don't like is a good point. People find it frightening, but it's
not. It's a chance for families to sit down and say we don't
want you to participate in this activity or in this test or in
this thing because our family values are the following.
She liked the bill's approach and didn't think that families are
as involved anymore as much as they should be. But when it comes
to the issue of human sexuality. She is a doctor's daughter and
wanted young people, particularly teenage children, to have some
access to information about what is happening to their bodies,
the changes that are going on with puberty and what that means,
the hormones, how that might change behavior, and how to respond
accordingly to protect themselves in a way not to get pregnant
should they decide to engage in sex. All parents hope they would
not, but that is not the reality. She didn't want to go too far
to the point where young people can't get some kind of read on
what is happening.
SENATOR MCGUIRE asked what is happening in schools that has
precipitated this. What is going on with Planned Parenthood and
kids being taught about abortions?
8:20:53 AM
SENATOR DUNLEAVY answered that he had received phone calls from
constituents and others throughout the state that abortion
providers were providing "lessons, trainings, and trainings for
teenagers so they can talk to others about sex and reproductive
issues." This bill does not prevent health teachers in a school
from teaching sex education. This is third parties using a
school as a host to get between parents and their children in
terms of values regarding reproductive services, sexuality, etc.
8:22:02 AM
SENATOR COGHILL moved to adopt the work draft CS for SB 89,
version 29-LS0735\G, as the working document.
8:22:21 AM
CHAIR STOLTZE objected for an explanation.
BETHANY MARCUM, staff to Senator Dunleavy, Alaska State
Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, said the CS basically eliminates
some unfunded mandates. It eliminates some unfunded mandates by
doing three things. One is on page 4, lines 20-27: it eliminates
the requirement for a certified teacher at a child care facility
to be fingerprinted twice and provides for a deed to supply the
fingerprint records to the Department of Health and Social
Services (DHSS) at the request of the individual.
The second change is on page 4, lines 2-7, that adds a new
subsection saying the district can't pay for physical exams for
teachers. They are not required by the state, but some districts
may require them.
The third primary change on page 4, line 28, eliminates the
requirement for school districts to provide physical exams for
children. Currently, the Department of Health and Social
Services (DHSS) can require districts to conduct physical exams,
and that hasn't changed and they may reimburse the district as
required. This CS removes the requirement for the school
districts to provide those exams.
She said other conforming language is made and explained that
with the previous school district-provided exam a report was
required to be provided to parents. That report would obviously
would go away since the exams would be going away. That is on
page 4, line 28. Then on page 4, lines 14-18, conforming
language is also removed regarding that statute being repealed.
CHAIR STOLTZE removed his objection and version G was before the
committee.
8:24:45 AM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if the health teacher teaching these
courses was a volunteer at an abortion services provider, could
they not be permitted to teach.
SENATOR DUNLEAVY answered that he didn't believe that was the
case. He would be teaching the school district approved
curriculum that had been vetted by the school district in a
public forum. A health teacher who is contracted by the school
district to be a teacher with a Type A, if they have district
approved curriculum that has been vetted, would be able to teach
most likely in a health class the prescribed curriculum as it
applies to human sexuality.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if it was okay for a substitute
teacher who is a volunteer at an abortion services provider to
teach health for one day.
SENATOR DUNLEAVY replied his intent was that adopted curriculum
that has been vetted by the school board on human sexuality can
be taught under this bill.
8:25:51 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS said kids graduate from school and don't object
to having a health teacher teach them health curriculum, but
that is not what he sends them to school for. He is with Senator
Dunleavy on this one.
8:27:47 AM
CHAIR STOLTZE, finding no further objections, announced that the
CS for SB 89 [version G] was before the committee.
8:29:59 AM
At ease from 8:29 to 8:31 a.m.
8:31:56 AM
CHAIR STOLTZE opened public testimony on SB 89.
8:32:53 AM
APRIL SMITH, representing herself, North Pole, Alaska, supported
SB 89. She said she thought an abortion provider would be
someone who markets and sells abortions, not Providence Hospital
that just provides them as an extra medical service. She related
how she was taught sex education in schools it wasn't
inappropriate but when she looked for more information from a
trust worthy source she was pulled into their system of defeat.
She went to them for help and they taught her how to lie and
manipulate adults in her life. They pushed services that
eventually lead to abortion.
8:36:50 AM
HEATHER FUSSELL, representing herself, Wasilla, Alaska,
supported SB 89. She believed in her right as a parent to
determine what her children are exposed to. Her children are
home schooled, but she thought abortion service providers should
not be allowed to supply materials to schools. A majority of the
money they make is from abortion services.
8:38:29 AM
ANDY HOLLEMAN, lobbyist, Anchorage Education Association,
Anchorage, Alaska, opposed SB 89. He said he represents about
3,500 educators in the classroom and everyone appreciates the
clarification of parents' rights to be informed, but the local
school boards that parents participate in are where it's decided
which materials come into the school rooms. But putting a legal
question on which materials a classroom teacher who may be
looking for current materials or outside expertise to come in
isn't necessarily healthy. He hoped they removed the language
that prohibits that.
8:40:34 AM
JENNIFER WOOLEY, representing herself, Anchorage, Alaska,
opposed SB 89. She was a life-long Alaskan and was proud of the
state, but was dismayed by its rate of sexually transmitted
infections (STI) and sexual assault. Her background is in sexual
health education and her future career is in medicine, so she
sees the direct connection between education and health. She
knew parents' concern lead to the introduction of this bill, but
she cautioned them to consider the children's parents who were
not as involved as hoped. Under this bill, each child will have
the additional burden of obtaining parental consent to access
information that may save their lives. They may not be able to
access the information they need, because their parents aren't
around. What happens to them then?
She said all children undoubtedly benefit from medically
accurate, age-appropriate education about their bodies and
relationships. Currently, parents can opt out, so children
should not be punished by requiring parents to opt in. She
encouraged promoting health and not the imagined threat of
peddling abortions.
8:42:19 AM
LENA ILLIG, representing herself, Anchorage, Alaska, opposed SB
89. She said sex education and education for healthy
relationships is crucial. Alaska is the number one state for
sexual assault, domestic violence and certain STIs. These issues
are personal to her because she had experienced domestic
violence and is using her experience to create awareness and
education for others regarding this epidemic in Alaska.
She said that over half of sexually active people will get an
STI in their life and taking away sex education only adds to the
problem. It will let teenagers be uninformed on how to protect
themselves from unwanted pregnancy and STIs. Studies show that
comprehensive sex education is effective in preventing teen
pregnancy.
8:44:11 AM
JOHN BLAINE, representing himself, Anchorage, Alaska, opposed SB
89. He supported previous comments saying that a better place to
discuss this matter are the local school boards. He said it
seemed like SB 89 was a direct assault against Planned
Parenthood, which has an admirable reputation for sex education
in schools with the best possible information given to children
in an appropriate way and time.
The only thing that has not been mentioned is how much the
family situation has changed in the country. Parents and
children sitting around a table talking about sex education is
not exactly the case. Children won't receive the information
they need if they don't have sex education in the schools.
Statistics show education reduces abortion.
8:46:54 AM
ROBIN SMITH, representing herself, Anchorage, Alaska, opposed SB
89. She said parental support for school-based sex education is
overwhelmingly positive over the past 20 years in survey after
survey. Local, state or national, 80-85 percent of parents
indicate that they want their children to received
comprehensive, medically accurate age-appropriate sex education.
Parents see such courses and content as supplementing, not
supplanting, their discussions at home. They say that their
children need both to be taught about delaying the onset of
intimate sexual relationships until they are mature and
responsible and also getting the information and skills they
need to use contraception when they do choose to become sexually
active. It's not a matter of either or, but both.
She said that Planned Parenthood helps fill an important gap
left by the state's inaction to ensure students have the
information they need to make educated decisions about
relationships and sex. The state does not have a comprehensive
sex education curricula that they even offer to the schools, let
alone require. Until Alaska steps up and provides this
comprehensive medically accurate sex health education to all
students communities will rely on outside educators to provide
it.
One of the education programs that Planned Parenthood offers is
a workshop for parents. This program encourages parents to pass
on their values to their children, but also to become more
comfortable with engaging children on sexual issues. She
encouraged them to look at this curricula and others they
provide.
KENNI LINDEN, representing herself, Palmer, Alaska, opposed SB
89. She was born and raised in Palmer and owns a home with her
husband around the corner from the elementary school she
attended. Her whole family had a "fantastic public education" in
Palmer public schools. The only glaring omission in her
education was sexual health. She and her peers would have
greatly benefited from comprehensive medically accurate
reproductive health education. She was sexually assaulted when
she was 15 and afterwards she was unaware of the resources
available to her as a student to protect her health and to speak
up in support of healthy relationships and consent. She was
delighted to hear that professionally trained health educators
were invited into schools to teach sex education and hoped it
would prevent others from experiencing the sexual trauma she
experienced. Although she has fabulous parents, she wasn't sure
that asking them to opt in for sex education may have prevented
her and her brothers from receiving any health information.
Between two households and three children, keeping track of
permission slips was chaos. This bill would add an undue burden
on parents and educators.
8:51:36 AM
JARED MCCLURE, representing himself, Anchorage, Alaska,
supported SB 89. Planned Parenthood's agenda is to market sex to
vulnerable and impressionable children and trick them into
behaving irresponsibly so they can sell them an abortion later.
If you want STDs and illegitimate and underage pregnancy rates
to go down, "just end the practice of allowing these perverse
abortionists free rein to market sex and abortions in our
school." They make a killing doing the abortions later.
8:52:41 AM
DEBORAH WILLIAMS, representing herself, Anchorage, Alaska,
opposed SB 89, because it will cost more money and undermine the
authority of local school districts. It will undermine local
control. She urged them to take a hard look at AS
14.03.016(a)(3), the opt in provision in it. It states that
schools, teachers, must provide parents notification not less
than two weeks but not more than six weeks before any activity
or class involving sexual health education. The cost of this
notification, the burden on teachers of this notification, the
problem with permission slips falling through the cracks is
great. New costs and new burdens cannot be imposed on teachers,
parents, students and particularly on our fiscal constraints.
MS. WILLIAMS said the current opt out provision is working well.
There is no testimony whatsoever that it is not working well.
She also opposed AS 14.03.83, which prohibits a school district
from contracting with an abortion services provider for all the
reasons Senator Wielechowski mentioned. It is vague and arguably
unconstitutional and very problematic, but mostly it undermines
the authority of the local school districts and local control.
She didn't think this committee wanted that. Sexual health
education saves dollars and this will undermine the ability to
save those dollars; we are in a fiscal crisis and can't afford
to spend more money where we don't have it.
MS. WILLIAMS closed saying that she is aware of the evidence-
based programming that is provided in the schools today on
sexual health education. "They matter; they are outstanding;
they are evidence-based. Please let school districts be the
authority on whether they want to continue using those, not
Juneau."
8:55:40 AM
MICHAEL PAULEY, Alaska Family Action, Alaska Family Council,
Seattle, Washington, supported SB 89. The most important words
in the entire bill are found in the title: An act relating to a
parent's right to direct the education of a child.
They believe that the right of parents to direct the education
of their child is inherent. He said, "Government doesn't give
parents that right any more than government gives us children."
Government does have an important role in helping to protect and
advance this inherent right and SB 89 is such a measure.
He said abortion is legal, but so are other things, like
cigarettes, and one would want tobacco companies into schools to
promote those in front of impressionable young people. Religion
is legal, too, but a local Catholic or Mormon church would not
get invited to teach a sex education class. Yet, Planned
Parenthood, a highly political and ideological organization,
acts as if they are entitle to be peddling their services to
children in the schools that citizens pay for.
He said nothing in SB 89 inhibits public schools from offering
sex education in classes provided they have the consent of
parents and provided they are not farming out the task to people
who sell abortions on the side.
8:58:25 AM
SACHA PETTITT, representing herself, Palmer, Alaska, supported
SB 89. She is a parent and works as a teacher for the Mat-Su
Borough school district. Parental choice is an integral part the
checks and balances that are needed in the education system. Her
students have consistently exceeded the statewide standards.
She said SB 89 sets up safety parameters for children and allows
parents to not be steamrolled into an agenda with others. She
didn't feel that permission slips are a burden. She thought the
cost of a ream of paper could easily be fit into the budget.
9:00:59 AM
ELENA GUSTAFSON, representing herself, Sitka, Alaska, opposed SB
89 wholeheartedly. Alaska's devastatingly high rates of child
sexual abuse were six times the national average; it is the
highest for teen dating violence, teen pregnancies rates are
higher than the national average and STDs are higher than in any
other state. She wasn't proud of these facts, but comprehensive
sex education, which is being taught at a large percentage of
schools in the States, is known to reduce these.
Every parent already has the right to be involved in their
child's education; they can remove their children from the
classroom if they believe the curriculum runs counter to their
best interests. The current system already provides for this,
she said. It is not an undue burden on parents to take advantage
of the rights that they already have to object and withdraw
their child from tests or any activity.
It is an undue burden on the most vulnerable in the state to put
opt-in clauses, specifically section (3) in the working draft,
on children who are experiencing abuse and neglect. If a child
is already being abused has to ask permission to receive what
may be the only safety resources they have ever had.
MS. GUSTAFSON said she had worked with children who after her
safety presentations in elementary schools had the language to
speak up and get the safety they deserved. If this bill went
into effect these children might be denied that education and be
stuck in an abusive family for years. School districts should be
the ones to decide who is the most qualified to provide this
information.
9:03:48 AM
LIBBY STORTZ, representing herself, Sitka, Alaska, opposed SB
89. She agreed with previous testifiers in opposition. During
adolescence most teens explore their sexuality through behavior
and Planned Parenthood, against whom this bill is focused, has
provided evidence-based, accurate, neutral sex education for
almost 100 years in the United States. This is about the health
and safety of teens. Comprehensive sex education helps thousands
of teens who with or without parental consent will do what comes
naturally. They need this information with or without parental
consent.
9:06:01 AM
BARBARA HANEY, representing herself, North Pole, Alaska,
supported SB 89 wholeheartedly. She understands people who are
upset about the abortion provider provision, but this bill in no
way blocks sex education. From her survey of schools in Alaska,
sex education is taught by a member of the bargaining unit; it's
not taught by Planned Parenthood.
She said many districts in the state have parental right of
refusal or opt out language, but not in others. Some schools are
good at letting parents opt out of sexual education units but
not testing. Other places are really good at letting you out of
testing but not so much sex education and she wasn't sure how
the two got linked together. Except for the overriding principal
which is that the parent should have the right to say "no, thank
you," that is already a right. She wanted the policy to be
uniform across the state.
9:07:52 AM
AMY WALKER, representing herself, Palmer, Alaska, supported SB
89. She said schools should be a safe place for our kids where
they can feel protected against propaganda and indoctrination.
She wanted to keep Planned Parenthood out of the schools; their
goal is to make money corrupting and indoctrinating our kids
with premarital sex, homosexuality, anti-family and anti-life
propaganda.
9:10:03 AM
CHRISTOPHER KURKA, Executive Director, Alaska Right to Life,
Chugiak, Alaska, supported SB 89. If Planned Parenthood has been
successful in preventing STDs, then "they really suck at it"
because there has been an extraordinary rise in recent years.
They don't exhibit scientific material, but material for the
purpose of promoting promiscuity. This bill is about stopping
organizations like Planned Parenthood who have an agenda to
promote promiscuity and abortion.
9:12:24 AM
ED GRAY, representing himself, Sitka, Alaska, supported SB 89.
Planned Parenthood has been in their school district and it
hasn't worked well. In fact, the school district has not acted
responsibly in collecting all students' information, email
addresses and turning them over to the abortion industry.
9:14:32 AM
SUSAN JENSEN, representing herself, Sitka, Alaska, supported SB
89. As a former public school teacher, she strongly respects the
right of parents to determine what is best for their children.
Parents are legally responsible for their children and should
therefore have the final say over what their children
participate in and what they are taught.
9:16:32 AM
YVONNE CORDUAN, representing herself, Sitka, Alaska, supported
SB 89, for all the previously stated reasons and because it
protects the inherent rights of parents to direct the education
of their children. Requiring local school boards to adopt
policies recognizing that authority perpetuates that right.
9:18:59 AM
LISA MELNICK, representing herself, Sitka, Alaska, supported SB
89. She is a mom raising six kids in the Alaska public school
system and supported it to keep abortion providers, such as
Planned Parenthood, out of the schools. They sell the product of
abortion and she did not want her girls learning about their
bodies from an organization that sells a product that she is
fundamentally against.
9:20:29 AM
JOANIE CLEARY, representing herself, Anchorage, Alaska, opposed
SB 89. It is being promoted as a bill that will protect parents'
rights, but as a parent who supports having a say in their
children's education especially sexual education, but this bill
targets one of the most qualified providers of comprehensive,
medically accurate, age-appropriate, sexual education. She
agreed with other speaker who opposed this bill. Parents who
want to teach their children about sex are never prevented from
doing that. She is an assistant to a guardian ad litem and sees
children in the foster care system who get no other information
in their home. Their parents are not available to them for a
variety of reasons, usually drugs, alcohol, mental health
problems, and they are just not doing their jobs.
She sees countless teens of the system who are growing up to
have children of their own. They didn't get a sufficient
education to be able to prevent that. She has volunteered at
Planned Parenthood and supports them. Every single person she
has met there has been very dedicated to women's and young
people's health and sexual health. She objected to some of the
characterizations that she had heard today.
Finally, Ms. Cleary said it part of the intent of this bill is
to prevent abortion, it is misguided. The best way to prevent
abortion is to provide comprehensive, medically accurate
information to our youth in every possible way.
9:23:02 AM
JUDY MILLER, representing herself, Anchorage, Alaska, opposed SB
89. She respected the bill's intent to support parental
involvement in schools, but she felt that it damages student's
ability to gain access to vetted, objective medically accurate
sexual health information as provided by Planned Parenthood. The
opt-out consideration already exists for parents and requiring
opt-in for sex education is counterproductive and a huge
administrative burden for the schools.
She said our youth are being inundated with sex messages from
television, movies, social media, and computer games; this is
why it is even more important that they receive unbiased
medically accurate sexual health information. No other
organization in the United State does more to prevent unintended
pregnancies than Planned Parenthood. In preventing pregnancies,
Planned Parenthood prevents the need for more abortions.
9:24:45 AM
ZHENIA PETERSON, representing herself, Anchorage, Alaska,
opposed SB 89. She is a student at the University of Alaska
Anchorage studying social work and public health. It is
important that students in high school get sexual education that
includes anatomy. It would be scary to appear at the university
level and not understand the basic concepts of how their bodies.
9:26:36 AM
BARBARA MCDANIEL, representing herself, Wasilla, Alaska, opposed
SB 89, because it promotes ignorance and she is a firm believer
in accurate and fact-based education delivered in a professional
and appropriate manner in all subjects including and especially
sexual health education. She is a parent and is happy that
Planned Parenthood is providing sexual health education from
more than 1.5 million youths every nationally. It's great that
caring school and community agencies take responsibility for
children's health and safety by seeking and employing Planned
Parenthood's reputable, reliable, professional, and thoroughly
vetted sexual health education curriculum for their students.
Alaska's infamous sexual health and safety statistics prove
Alaska youths do not need any more ignorance.
ALYSON CURREY, Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, Juneau,
Alaska, opposed SB 89. She said they operate four health centers
across the state in Juneau, Anchorage, Soldotna, and Fairbanks.
In 2013, they served about 13,000 patients, the vast majority of
whom come to them for non-judgmental quality care, namely for
birth control and family planning, STI testing and treatment,
well room exams (cervical cancer screenings and breast health
checks) and prenatal care. She said Planned Parenthood has also
been a trusted provider of comprehensive sexual health education
in Alaska for over 20 years and throughout the country for
nearly 100 years.
MS. CURREY said the collaborative work between school districts
and Planned Parenthood is an important partnership that benefits
students and empowers them to make safe and healthy decisions
about their sexual health. Their programs reinforces
communication between parents and their children and provides
the tools necessary to support parents in communicating about
sexuality and sexual health with their children.
MS. CURREY explained that Planned Parenthood works closely with
some schools, but they are not in every school. When invited in,
they tailor their curriculum on prevention per a teacher's
request and it should be up the schools to decide what
curriculum comes into their classrooms. All of their curriculum
is vetted for medical accuracy.
9:31:03 AM
DIANNA HOBBS, representing herself, Juneau, Alaska, opposed SB
89. She is a Thunder Mountain Junior and opposed the provision
that bans abortion service providers from schools. This will
directly affect the work she does as a volunteer/peer educator
through teen councils that are sponsored by Planned Parenthood.
She said there is a common misconception that Planned Parenthood
educators are marketing abortion services to youth in school
presentations, but that is "simply not true."
She said Teen Councils was created over 20 years ago in
Washington State by Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest
while the local Juneau Teen Council formed three years ago. She
explained that when invited into classrooms, Teen Council
members teach peers about healthy sexuality and healthy
relationships and impact peers through thoughtful, nonjudgmental
education and outreach. The support of these organizations is
needed to help them learn and teach; it helps support thousands
of teens and children who add to the state's tragic and
disturbingly high statistics.
9:32:48 AM
KALEY COLUMN, representing herself, Juneau, Alaska, opposed SB
89. She is a 16-year old sophomore at Juneau-Douglas High School
and a member of Juneau Teen Council. Since the beginning of the
2014/15 school year, 7 Juneau Teen Council members have
collectively contributed over 900 volunteer hours toward
learning about sexuality and developing education skills. These
hours include those when they are invited into classrooms to
educated students about growing up in their bodies. Often they
are invited by health teachers, because they don't have all of
the information they might need.
She said the recently four members received the prestigious
statewide Spirit of Youth Award for service to peers for
creating a high quality teen made video about health
relationships, healthy sexuality and nonviolence. Teen Council
meets weekly for two-hour training meetings on things like
abstinence and unintended pregnancy prevention, sexually
transmitted infection prevention, healthy relationships, consent
and teen dating violence. In addition, they learn about things
like the side effects of abusing drugs and alcohol, media
literacy, social justice issues and much more. She has left a
class and receive anonymous notes saying how much they
appreciate their talking to them. She has received drawings from
little middle school girls saying how much they appreciated her
coming in and helped them learn something about what they didn't
know.
She said the power of peer education is so important, because
adolescents listen to each other much more often and with much
more inherent respect than listening to adults. The information
is learned with more detail and more information can be spread
in this way.
9:36:23 AM
SUSAN SCHRADER, representing herself, Juneau, Alaska, opposed SB
89. She asked how likely is a parent who is abusing a child to
proactively opt in to have that child receive sex education that
might prevent that abuse. Someone at a previous meeting said she
received anonymous note from a youngster if it was okay for her
stepfather to have sex with me. How likely would that father
sign a permission slip to allow that child to receive sex
education? STD statistics will not be lowered with this bill's
approach.
Currently parents have many ways to opt out of any class or
activity they don't agree with in a school district; this bill
is unnecessary and represents a misguided effort to put a
specific ideology of a few ahead of the health of Alaskans.
9:38:23 AM
NORM WOOTEN, Association of Alaska School Boards, Juneau,
Alaska, opposed SB 89. He addressed only section 3 and said the
association had been involved in "Alaska Ice," the initiative
for community engagement for 20 years. They try to connect
schools to their communities and as part of that the provide for
the administering of the School Climate and Connectedness Survey
(SCCS) that asks students about their perceptions of events
going on around them. It's not about their personal behaviors
and not about things that are going on in their family. He
explained that consultants constructed this test to
intentionally avoid those issues. The survey is used by school
districts to determine destructive activity such as bullying
that may exist in their schools and to take actions to create a
safer climate within the school. It's based on the 40 assets
model, that the more assets a student possesses the more likely
they are to succeed both in school and out of school. SB 89 will
make it very difficult to obtain consent from folks to get valid
data to provide to school districts. He suggested that the bill
goes too far.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked what sorts of questions are being
asked.
MR. WOOTEN answered that he would provide that information to
the chair.
CHAIR STOLTZE invited parents to provide written testimony on
what questions they might object to that they have been asked.
9:41:24 AM
CAREN ROBINSON, lobbyist, Alaska Women's Lobby, Juneau, Alaska,
opposed SB 89. Their mission is to defend and advance the rights
and needs of women, children and families. This bill is an
example of state overreach. Nothing is more local than their
children's and grandchildren's schools. Communities elect school
boards that hire a superintendent. In Juneau, each school has a
parent council that hires the principals. We are so locally
driven that one middle school bans all student activity travel
and another that allows it. It should be up to local schools to
decide who they invite, whether it's police for DARE or health
care providers to talk about STIs or obesity, or advocates to
talk about child abuse, dating violence and sexual assault.
They also believe that putting the burden on school districts to
ask parents to opt in on almost everything is costly and waste,
plus it's just not realistic. She said the system is not broken;
parents already have the authority to approve their children's
participation in school activities. They believe that schools
and parents working together to decide who can come into their
schools.
9:43:44 AM
MELISSA ENGEL, representing herself, Juneau, Alaska, opposed SB
89. She said, "SB 89 is masquerading as a parental rights bill
and has dangerous consequences that puts the health and future
of our youth at risk by limiting access to necessary resources
and information regarding reproductive and sexual health."
9:46:28 AM
PETER HOEPFNER, board member, Cordova School District, Cordova,
Alaska, opposed SB 89. He noted that section 1, the ability of
parents to opt out of standards-based assessments or tests
required by the state, hadn't been discussed much. School
districts have been asked to be accountable, and if students are
opting out of this test the results will be an inadequate
portrayal of the total student performance. The tests should
eliminated rather than giving the option to opt out.
Another issue is if a person doesn't opt in, you don't know if
the student has lost the slip or if the parents have misplaced
it.
SENATOR STOLTZE said the teachers he hears from in his district
are against more testing.
9:48:37 AM
MARY E. KEHRHAHN-STARK, Planned Parenthood, Fairbanks, Alaska,
opposed SB 89. This legislation will make it harder for Alaska
youth to access crucial sexual health and social services they
need. Both academic and sexual education are important in a
person's life. Today's culture offers an abundance of
opportunity for sexual exploration whether people want to see it
or not and whether people agree with it or not. Young people
need to be armed with as much knowledge about their bodies and
what they can do to protect themselves from unwanted assaults,
diseases, infections and unplanned pregnancy.
9:51:54 AM
JESSICA CLER, representing herself, Anchorage, Alaska, opposed
SB 89. She had a great public school education in the Mat-Su
school district and was fortunate to have very engaged parents.
However, the one incredibly important piece that was missing
from her public school education was comprehensive medically
accurate sex education and information on consent, healthy
relationships and teen dating violence. This information was
desperately needed because of Alaska's high rates of sexual
assault and sexual abuse. Alaska already falls short in
providing this education; Planned Parenthood fills an important
gap left by the state's inaction and communities rely on them to
provide that information. In tight fiscal times, community
partners, like Planned Parenthood, provide a vital service to
the school districts.
MS. CLER said this bill is an additional burden on already
strapped schools and it is written so broadly that it could have
dangerous effects in limiting students' access to sexual assault
awareness and prevention.
9:53:42 AM
DONNA KLECKA, representing herself, Eagle River, Alaska, opposed
SB 89 because of all the reasons people have already iterated.
9:54:44 AM
CHAIR STOLTZE, finding no further comments, closed public
testimony and held SB 89 in committee.