By Rita Diller
When I answered the call to go to Oregon and attend the Oregon Adolescent Sexuality Conference two years ago, I knew it would be one of the hardest things I had ever done. But I also knew that God was calling me to go, to listen, to document, and to report the atrocities to anyone who would listen.
I wrote a series of articles that caught national attention and kindled tremendous local involvement against the annual sex conference. The goal was to get the conference shut down and inform parents of the unthinkable topics and situations Planned Parenthood, the state of Oregon, and their cohorts were foisting on children as young as sixth grade.
As a result of parents stepping up their activities to expose the Seaside conference across Oregon, KOIN 6 News in Portland launched a series of investigative reports following the 2014 conference. The news station announced in its most recent investigative report on March 7 that the conference scheduled to take place in April 2015 in Seaside has been canceled! Thanks be to God.
“This conference cancelation comes after more than six months of investigating,” KOIN’s Carla Castaño says in the March 7 investigative news report. She was speaking of the investigation she personally carried out. “The material we exposed at the sex conference caused the state to launch their own investigation, and they found the pamphlets were inappropriate for school-aged students,” she said. The pamphlets were not the only concern. Unspeakable presentations were given to the children. These are documented on the Parents’ Rights in Education website, along with the pamphlets.
Castaño’s latest report includes statements from Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin and state senator Tim Knopp, both saying they are glad to hear the conference has been canceled. Lori Porter, head of Parents’ Rights in Education, weighs in on the report as well.
“Obviously, the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office along with the majority of the people in this community are really happy to see this sex conference will be canceled,” the sheriff said. He had previously expressed concerns that the children were being encouraged to take part in illegal activities.
The corruption at the conference reached from state offices and into school districts across the state. It seemed an impossible situation for parents to overcome. But through perseverance, they have indeed overcome the odds and this year’s conference has been canceled. “It is a classic David beats Goliath story,” Jim Welsh of the parents’ rights groups told STOPP.
Parents’ Rights in Education, STOPP, the local sheriff, and state legislators will be watching to see whether the conference is started up again in the future. If it is, KOIN 6 investigative reporter Carla Castaño promises that she will be watching as well.
An Oregon state official boasted at the 2013 conference that Oregon has the most “progressive” sex education laws in the nation, and that they were pushed in under the radar of parents.
If a conference like this can be shut down in Oregon, explicit sex education can be shut down anywhere in the nation. Perseverance and the tenacity necessary to present the evidence and to get this indecency fest exposed by the news media was key in this victory.
Now that the conference is on the radar, the light needs to shine on those state laws that violate decency and compromise student safety. We pray that will be the next area of focus in Oregon, along with the eradication of classroom sex education and the WISE program, which are cut out of the same mold as the Oregon conference.
Rita Diller is the national director of American Life League’s Stop Planned Parenthood International.