The post below is in text or can be viewed as two video clips. You may find the content confronting but as Rodney says it is, ” … representative of the 196 page Navigating the Journey for Year 9s.”

Sex Ed in New Zealand schools hypersexualises kids and further confuses them in their identity and sense of self.

My approach has been to tell parents what is happening and to plead to Let Kids Be Kids.

In theory school boards, in consultation with parents, decide what is taught. In practice what is taught is decided by the Ministry of Education with parents and Boards completely in the dark.

Weirdly, what is taught follows what UNESCO says should be taught, and more weirdly, New Zealand committed to teaching the UNESCO curriculum when we signed up to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Crazy right? It starts with the UN.

For nine months I have been trying to get 10 minutes in front of the Wakatipu High School Board of Trustees to explain the curriculum they have supposedly agreed to.

The Board Chair and Principal have not been at all keen for me to present.

Finally, I got the opportunity on Monday 17 February. I took a great deal of time to get my speech to time and to check and double check accuracy. I decided to record my presentation so parents could get to see what is being taught to their children. That, after all, is how boards and schools are supposed to work.

I checked with the New Zealand Board of Trustees Association. The Association exists to advise school boards on governance. The Association confirmed that School Board meetings are held in public and, of course, I could record my presentation. They suggested it would be courteous to advise the Board of my intention.

The week before my presentation I emailed both the Principal and the Chair that I would be recording my presentation. On the Monday morning of my presentation the Principal Oded Nathan emailed to say I was not allowed to record my presentation. I replied saying that I was and would be and that I had checked with the New Zealand Board of Trustees Association.

Just as I was leaving for the meeting I received an email from Board Chair Adrian Januszkiewicz that I would not be allowed to record my presentation. He cited section 131 of the Act as giving the Board that power and said he wanted to protect the privacy of Board members. He suggested that as a consequence I may choose not to present.

I double checked with the New Zealand Board of Trustees Association. They explained that section 131 provides the board with “complete discretion to perform its functions and exercise its powers as it thinks fit” but obviously that discretion is “subject to this Act, any other enactment, and the general law of New Zealand”.

It would be odd that a Board could do away with the need to meet in public! But that in fact was what the Board Chair was proposing. And he is a lawyer taking, as it turned out, legal advice.

And what about privacy? The Board Members serve as officers of a crown entity and in that capacity have no expectation of privacy. Our schools aren’t supposed to be run in secret. Openness and transparency are the hallmarks of good government and democracy.

A reasonable person might well ask why I was so intent on recording my presentation. It’s because I realise what is happening to our kids is happening in darkness away from the light. There is no openness or transparency. There is no accountability. There is no informed consent. There is no democracy.

It seems to me parents are kept in the dark because the invisible agents hypersexualising our kids know that parents rise up if only they knew what is happening. My experience is students are too embarrassed to talk to their parents about what they are being taught in school. And who can blame them?

My aim is just to let parents and boards know what is happening. I wanted to record my presentation so parents could be informed of what their Board is up to.

Indeed, I wanted the Board to know what they were up to. I am certain they have no knowledge. Certainly the Chair had no knowledge of the curriculum when I first met him one-on-one. He said he knew nothing of it. He didn’t seem all that keen to learn either. Or to do anything.

Back to the Board meeting.

The principal met me outside the boardroom to say that I could not record because it was against the tikanga of the school. I was now getting exasperated. I had heard all the excuses for why I could not present to the Board and now it was a laundry list of reasons why I could not record my presentation.

I explained I would be presenting and I would be recording. The Chairman then was sent out to talk to me. He explained they had legal advice. I suggested their legal advice was not much chop if it suggested that the Board could meet in secret.

The principal then said that I could not record my presentation because they had a 16 year old student rep on the Board and discussing sex ed in front of her was not appropriate. The irony of me discussing what they were teaching my 13 year old being inappropriate for a 16 year old seemed entirely lost on them. And also that the student rep could hear my presentation, but not if I were to record my presentation. It was bananas.

The upshot was that I did not get to present to the Board. I stood outside the School and gave my presentation to camera. It’s the presentation that the School Chair and the School Principal did not want their Board to hear — or at least have a record of their Board hearing it.

So please share, far and wide.

Board Presentation

Wakatipu High School

Rodney Hide — 17 February 2025

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Thank you too for your service and support for the School. I very much appreciate it.

I want to share my experience as a Parent of the School’s Relationship and Sexuality Education curriculum or what is known as RSE.

I am here because RSE is a Board responsibility.

The Education and Training Act 2020 requires the Board every two years to adopt a statement on the content and delivery of the Health Curriculum.

In doing so, the Board must inform the school community (that is, parents) of the content of the Health Curriculum and “ascertain the wishes of the school community regarding the way in which the health curriculum should be implemented given the views, beliefs, and customs of the members of that community” (s91).

That is to say, I am in the right place, talking to the right people.

The Board is directly and solely responsible for what I am here to discuss.

School advice

Last year my 13 year old daughter was a year 9 student at Wakatipu High School.

The School’s Head of Health and Physical Education Cara Sibtsen emailed my wife explaining the upcoming course.

The email itself was misleading:

“This term, [–] as part of the compulsory ‘Health Education in New Zealand Schools’ [–] our Year 9 students will be participating in a unit of work focused on relationship and sexuality education.”

The email is misleading because s.51 of the Act specifically makes RSE optional. The Health Curriculum is compulsory. RSE is not.

To agree to the course, I needed to see it.

I replied to Cara asking for the material taught.

Cara replied: “The resources we use for this unit are intellectual property … [and] the Navigating the Journey resource is a purchased resource and we can not share this due to copyright.”

My concern became informed consent: I could not see the material that I was to OK for my 13 year old daughter.

The failure to disclose is in direct opposition to the Board’s obligation under s.91 of the Act.

I bought “Navigating the Journey” for Year 9 students.

Course content

Here’s what I discovered.

Marriage is mentioned but once and only to explain that sexual assault occurs within marriage (NtJ9 p.52). Marriage and family don’t feature.

Abstinence is not recommended. Sex is the 13 year old’s choice.

The age of consent is mentioned but the course explains that children under 16 may still want to have sex in which case, “It is important that both people give consent and that contraceptives are used carefully” (NtJ9 p.51).

The course explains over and over to 13 year olds how to give and gain consent when legally they can do neither.

13 year olds and consent is a legal impossibility.

The course has pairs of pupils putting condoms on wooden penises (NtJ9 p.79). Girls at 13 with boys in the class.

The course has students in groups connecting cards saying vaginal sex, anal sex and oral sex with their meanings. The exercises are designed to stimulate class discussion (NtJ Appendix 11). The cards are graphic. The matching card for “oral sex” is “one person’s mouth touching another person’s genitals – (that is,) penis, testicles, vulva, clitoris or anus”.

13 year olds are given an exercise to stimulate class discussion about oral and anal sex.

There are also scenarios to discuss. For example:

A young woman gets drunk at a party. She is flirting with and kissing an older woman. After dancing with her she passes out in a bedroom. The older woman has sex with her (NtJ Appendix 13).

There is nothing to discuss about this scenario. There’s only a statement to make: what’s described is a crime for which the punishment is 20 years.

The curriculum states, “The main reason people take part in sexual activity is for pleasure” (NtJ p.48). Pleasure, consent and protection are the key messages the curriculum provides.

The curriculum explains that masturbation is a good way to learn about what gives one pleasure with the pupil’s bedroom being a good place to experiment (NtJ p.48).

And sex toys. They are good too. But be careful, the curriculum warns. They can spread disease when shared with friends and lovers (NtJ p.80).

Videos

The curriculum recommends videos for the students.

Here are snippets:

“So there are a bunch of sexual orientations that sit on the spectrum and it is just important to go with what works for you.

“If your sexuality is outside of the norm, that is awesome.

“When it comes to having sex for the first time, it is all up to you. You can do vagina to penis, or hands to vagina, or hands to vulva, or mouth to vulva, or vulva to vulva, or hands to penis, you could do mouth to penis or penis to anus.

“Lube is especially important to use during anal sex because anuses don’t self lubricate.

“STIs are a common part of sexual activity and nothing to be ashamed about. Best thing to do is to get checked often. It is just like checking your hard drive for viruses.

“If you are performing oral sex on a vulva you can always use a dental dam to protect both you and your partner from STIs. And if you don’t have a dental dam at home you can always make one from a condom and some scissors.

“We are not saying all porn is bad. And if you want to watch it, it is totally up to you.

“Ethical porn is a genre that makes sure everyone is enjoying themselves whatever their sexual orientation. People are not doing things to each other but with each other.

“There’s queer porn that is actually made by queer people for queer people. There’s loads of different types of porn out there.”

To be fair Mr Nathan did email me to say that PE teacher Mr King would not be showing the video that would tell my daughter to lube and protect herself should she submit to anal sex. That was good but little comfort.

Indeed, such an omission reinforces that the curriculum is not fit for purpose.

This Board says teach anal sex. Your teacher says No.

The Minister of Education Erica Stanford has also said No. She has declared the RSE guidelines not “fit for purpose”. They are to be withdrawn at the end of this term.

You might think I have cherry-picked the worst of the curriculum. I have not. What I have presented to you is representative of the 196 page Navigating the Journey for Year 9s. I invite you all to read it.

I have four quick points upon which to conclude:

1/ The curriculum material the Board has approved is highly inappropriate both for the school and for minors;

2/ There is no informed consent: parents do not know what is taught and can’t readily find out. That’s in direct opposition to s.51;

3/ The Board consultation last year was meaningless: parents have no clue of the content and can’t get the content should they ask for it. That’s in direct opposition to s.91.

4/ The present curriculum is inappropriate and dangerous. There are plenty of wholesome and truthful curricula to choose from.

Thank you for your time. I am happy to answer questions.