Bristol program funded by State of Vermont with federal funds
by Renee McGuinness
A Bristol not-for-profit will pay adolescents $125 with taxpayer dollars for completing a sex education program in Bristol during Thanksgiving Week.
Students are being enticed with a $125 cash stipend upon completion of a course that teaches, “safe and informed adolescent sexual and reproductive health” through the Bristol Teen Hub and Skatepark located near Mount Abraham Union Middle-High School in Bristol. “The Hub,” as it is called locally, serves as an after school gathering place for youth ages 12 – 19.
According to a flyer posted in schools, the program, “Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP),” is “LGBTQ inclusive” and covers topics such as gender identity and expression, sexual orientation spectrum, contraception, and safe sex practices for the prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s) and HIV/AIDS: the details of which are taught through what are described as fun, engaging activities.
The PREP workshop is sponsored by Vermont Afterschool, a 501c(3), which is funded in part by the Vermont Departments of Health, Mental Health, and Education, the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and the State Treasurer’s Office. In other words, taxpayers are funding this program.
Taylor Welch-Plante, Director of the Hub, who has experience in social work, is teaching the two-day workshop during the Thanksgiving school break.
According to Welch-Plante, the curriculum is, “Making Proud Choices” which can be purchased through the organization Education Training Research (ETR), a non-profit that specializes in youth health education. The page on the ETR website that is supposed to list ETR funders does not list them.
The $125 cash stipend is provided through federal dollars designated to the Vermont Department of Health.
Welch-Plante stated that parental consent is needed, and that parents can sign up their students through the Bristol Recreation Department. Can students create a bogus account and sign up for the class without their parents’ knowledge? Possibly.
The “Making Proud Choices! (MPC)” Summary Sheet claims that the program stresses delaying sex until a later age and does not encourage sexual activity. The claimed intent is to reduce STI and pregnancy risk through, “a series of fun and interactive learning experiences” such as, “activities designed to increase comfort and build skills in condom use and negotiation.” MPC curriculum includes video clips, games, brainstorming, and role-playing. “Each activity lasts only a brief time and involves adolescents getting out of their seats and interacting with each other,” the ETR website states.
“The Hub” frames minors ages 12 – 19 as “young adults”. These are adolescents and teens, not young adults, and as such lack the maturity to understand the mental, emotional, and physical consequences of early and extra-marital sexual activity.
Sexual activity among 12-15 years olds, part of this demographic, violates Vermont’s consent law. Under state law, adolescents aged 12 -15 cannot consent to sex.
This sex ed program may be a work-around of Trump’s Executive Order, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling”, under which the Federal Administration intends to withhold federal funds from public schools who are indoctrinating students with gender ideology and violating parents’ rights to access curriculum under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The Bristol Hub is a non-profit and the program will be held during the Thanksgiving Week vacation.
The author is an Addison County resident and Vermont Family Alliance Policy Analyst.