For years, Parents’ Rights In Education has warned that when public schools normalize early sexual behavior, blur boundaries, and dismantle age-appropriate protections, children become vulnerable—not empowered. Today, we’re witnessing the consequences nationwide: minors exploited online, targeted by predators, and confused by the very ideology schools teach them to trust. This crisis is not accidental. It is the direct result of a K–12 system that has replaced safeguarding with sexualization, identity confusion, and adult-level content presented to children—some as young as 5.  

How Schools Created the Perfect Environment for Predators

1. Early Sexualization Through Curriculum

Many districts now teach that early sexual activity is “perfectly normal,” that multiple partners are fine, and that “consensual exploration” is healthy—even for very young children. This strips away the idea that children need clear boundaries and adult protection. Predators rely on this confusion. When kids hear:

• “Exploring is normal,”
• “If you agree, it’s okay,”
• “You don’t need to tell your parents,”

they lose the ability to recognize grooming when it happens.

2. Mixed-Class Sexuality Instruction Increases Pressure

Schools routinely place boys and girls together to discuss explicit topics:

• sexual behaviors,
• identity exploration,
• adult decision-making frameworks.

This creates a peer-pressure environment where students feel they must appear “mature,” which predators easily exploit both online and offline.

3. Teaching Children to Hide Information From Parents

A growing number of districts teach that sexual feelings, identity declarations, and related decisions are private from parents—that the school is a “safe space,” and home may not be. This engineered secrecy creates:

• emotional isolation,
• distrust of parents,
• dependency on peers or online strangers for guidance.

Groomers specifically target children who feel disconnected from their parents.

4. Redefining Consent Without Explaining Coercion

Modern sex-ed programs emphasize consent as the only moral requirement for sexual behavior—without explaining:

• emotional manipulation,
• power imbalance,
• online coercion,
• or the legal reality that minors cannot consent to adults.

This simplistic message leaves minors unprepared and unprotected.  

Grooming Is Not Just Wrong—It’s a Felony

Here is the point every parent must understand:

Grooming a minor is a Class 4 felony.

A felony—punishable by years in prison. Yet many public schools have adopted classroom practices that reflect the same behavioral pattern used by criminal groomers: premature exposure to sexual material, social normalization of adult topics, secrecy from parents, and dismantling protective boundaries. When a system replicates conduct that would send an ordinary adult to prison, parents have a moral duty to intervene.  

MY TAKE — Suzanne Gallagher, PRE Executive Director

Schools were entrusted with our children’s innocence. Instead, many districts now engage in behaviors that mirror the psychological tactics used by predators—normalizing early sexual behavior, blurring boundaries, and encouraging children to hide information from their parents. Here is the truth every parent must confront:

➡️ GROOMING A MINOR IS A CLASS 4 FELONY.

A felony crime—punishable by years in prison.

If any adult in your neighborhood exposed children to explicit sexual content, encouraged secrecy, or discussed sexual techniques or identities with minors, they would be handcuffed and taken away. But inside public schools?

Many states have created an “Obscenity Exemption” for public school staff—giving educators legal protection to show or discuss sexual content that would get your neighbor arrested.

This means schools can:

• present graphic sexual material,
• introduce adult sexual topics to young children,
• describe sexual acts and “consensual exploration,”
• promote identity-based sexual ideology,

all without facing the criminal penalties that apply to every other adult in society. These exemptions are not loopholes. They are shield laws that allow institutions to engage in conduct that would otherwise be prosecuted as felony-level grooming. This is not a misunderstanding. This is institutionalized permission for adults in the school system to sexualize minors under the banner of “education.” Parents must respond with urgency. We must restore boundaries. We must challenge these exemptions. And we must reassert our rightful authority to protect our children. Our schools should never be the one place where the law looks the other way.  

BY THE NUMBERS

• 95% of teens have access to a smartphone—predators’ primary tool.
• 1 in 7 minors online receives unwanted sexual solicitation each year.
• 50%+ of explicit images of minors are shared by other minors—a downstream effect of school-driven early sexualization.
• Over 4,000 U.S. schools use sex-ed programs that frame early sexual experimentation as “normal exploration.”
• Predators target ages 8–15, the same window when schools intensively introduce sexual ideology.
• Criminal Law: Grooming a minor is prosecutable as a Class 4 felony in multiple states.

 

CALL TO ACTION

1. Demand Curriculum Transparency

Request every sex-ed lesson, handout, video, and teacher training. If a school refuses, it’s a warning sign.

2. Opt Your Child Out—In Writing

Most states require districts to honor written opt-outs. PRE provides templates upon request.

3. Mobilize Your School Board

Support candidates who prioritize safeguarding children and reject grooming-style curricula. Advocate for a Parents’ Bill of Rights in your district.

4. Start or Join a PRE Affiliate

Real change happens at the local level. PRE gives leaders training, resources, and national backup.

5. Share This Alert Widely

Parents cannot fight what they cannot see. Forward this to friends, churches, and community groups.