The Saskatchewan government has suspended Planned Parenthood from presenting in the province’s schools after the group made sexually explicit “Sex from A-Z” cards available to grade 9 students.
The cards being made available to kids at Lumsden High School north of Regina caused outrage among concerned parents.
The province’s education minister Dustin Duncan said on Thursday, “I have directed and will be directing boards of education and administration to suspend for the time being the work in schools of Planned Parenthood as it relates to their involvement in health and wellness courses.”
The “Sex from A-Z” cards in question were developed by the AIDS Committee of Toronto with the assistance from CATIE. They are “intended for gay, bi and queer young people,” and are described as “a fun and accessible resource that facilitates humorous and frank discussion among young people about sexuality and HIV and STI prevention.”
The cards feature explicit language about sex, sexual acts and certain fetishes.
The U card is for “Urophilia,” which is a urine fetish, while another card discusses defecating on partners. The C card discusses “Cathodilla” which is “being attracted to one’s television set.” Meanwhile, S is for “Snowballing” which the sex card defines as the oral exchange of seminal fluid.
The sex cards also discuss porn. M being for “Money Shot” – “the cum shot in porn movies, when the oiled-up cowboy ejaculates.” The X card is for “XXX” – “a rating for pornography.”
“There’s a lot of different kinds of porn – there’s something for everyone,” the card claims.
Other notable cards include the one for R, which discusses “Raw Sex”, and the one for G, which talks about glory holes. The full deck of cards can be found HERE.
Duncan said the cards are “completely inappropriate to be in a classroom” and have “no part of being in a classroom.” The minister noted that the situation upset him both in his capacity as a politician and as a father.
“I want to make sure that the Ministry of Education also is undertaking a review of our own information to ensure that it is appropriate and age-appropriate in particular,” he added.
Duncan doesn’t believe the situation precludes Planned Parenthood from being a part of delivering resources and information to classrooms in the future.
In a statement to CTVNews, the school division said the “inappropriate” sex cards were a secondary resource made available to students at a side table.
“While the presentation itself was aligned with the Saskatchewan curriculum, the presenter brought a secondary resource which was not. This secondary resource, consisting of an A to Z sexual vocabulary, was inappropriate for students.”
“It was not referred to in the actual presentation but was available at a side table after the presentation.”
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood Regina executive director Julian Wotherspoon told The Canadian Press the suspension of her organization was disappointing. Her organization believes “people of all ages have a right to that information about their sexual health.”
“It’s a little disconcerting that this decision was made so quickly and without consultation with us to establish that this resource was not part of what we were teaching,” said Wotherspoon. “We’re hoping they will follow up with us at some point.”
Wotherspoon added that the Aids Committee of Toronto sex cards are usually not brought into classrooms as they are meant for more mature audiences. Planned Parenthood also apologized for what happened in Lumsden.
Wotherspoon also praised the group responsible for the sex cards as a “reputable source for material that is engaging, informative, sex-positive and stigma-reducing,” adding “We have a lot of their stuff around.”
Duncan claims Planned Parenthood initially did not have any issue with the sex cards.
“My understanding is the feedback from people that have called my office to say that they have contacted Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood didn’t have an issue or didn’t see what the issue was with this material.”
“Anybody that’s going into a school needs to be a lot more careful than that to ensure that the information they just happen to be bringing along from their office is appropriate.”
Duncan also said he believes parents should be informed when their kids are learning about sex.
This is not the first time that these particular “Sex from A-Z” cards have been given out to students in publicly funded schools.
Earlier this year, the cards were given out to grade 8 and 9 students by a public health nurse at Fort Nelson Secondary School in Fort Nelson B.C. Cards were also given out to Chilliwack middle school students back in 2015.
