Arizona's Education Taliban is at it Again

This time, Arizona's right to lifers, aka right wing, religious wing nuts, are at it again, wreaking havoc on the state's youngest, most vulnerable population. Today's New York Times reports the story of how  young people should have their lives and their children's lives ruined because of religious fanaticism and those who still want to live in the Dark Ages, where women and children knew their place, or else.

Ms. Smith, the school board member and parent, said she had been driving her family home from church back in January when her son told her about what was in the textbook. “I almost drove off the road,” she said. 

“I’m Catholic; we do not contracept,” Ms. Smith said. “It is a grave sin.” By including those pages in the curriculum, she added, “you have violated my religious rights.” 

She and other parents offended by the material said they thought it could be in violation of a law signed in 2012, called SB 1009, which required Arizona schools to teach in a way that favored a woman’s taking a pregnancy to term over terminating it. 

The textbook “speaks about abortion, it touches on childbirth, but there’s not a mention of adoption,” said Christine Accurso, a mother of three who moved her children out of the school district well before the issue arose but got involved nevertheless. “It was blatant. It was obvious.”