CULTURE
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Brian Camenker of Parent's Rights Coalition He remembers the day when it all started in late 1992. Several people were at a neighbor’s house, and a mother showed Brian Camenker the teaching guide for the 6th grade sex education class. It was from the local junior high school in Newton where his kids would later be attending.
The two of them went to the Superintendent of Schools who defended the book and suggested that maybe they should send their kids to a religious school if they objected. So they brought several parents to the next School Committee meeting. The chairman said that the committee didn’t have to explain themselves. The parents should leave. Then, the next issue of the Tab had a big headline, "Officials fear religious right targeting schools." Camenker saw himself and the other parents denounced in print as intruders and troublemakers. A school committee member went on the radio and said that Camenker was a "Christian fundamentalist" and should be avoided. (Camenker is Jewish and belongs to a local synagogue.) "I learned first-hand how vicious and ruthless modern liberals are when they are defending their turf. And they consider their ‘turf’ to be the school system and the socialization of other peoples children. But more important, these people who preach moral relativism have no moral compass themselves. Nothing is out of bounds to them. With no moral restraints, they will believe anything and do anything. I think that is the hardest thing for the average person to come to grips with," said Camenker. This intimidates a lot of people and most have just given up. "Yes, it’s a very frightening thing. But for some reason I just refused to back down. They simply have no right to do this to us and our kids." In the meantime, Camenker started receiving phone calls from all over Newton, from parents who felt the same way and wanted to join him. About that time Jeanine Graf, now a talkshow host at WTTK-FM, featured him on several shows. And he began getting calls from across Massachusetts. Hundreds of parents, with all kinds of horror stories. Camenker and other parents formed the Parents Rights Coalition, a statewide volunteer group. Their first endeavor was filing the "Parents Rights Bill" in the State Legislature in 1995. It gave parents the right to exempt their kids from sexual and homosexual-oriented classes and required schools to notify parents of them. The bill languished for two years and was strongly opposed by the teacher unions and particularly the homosexual activist groups. The Legislature tried to ignore it. But literally thousands of parents loudly demanded it. In 1996 it passed. Camenker was at first quite surprised that the organized homosexual movement puts so much emphasis on targeting the public schools. "One wonders why a Boston homosexual group would put so much energy into children in school systems around the state, but they are quite obsessed with it. They are intent on changing our children’s beliefs and attitudes – ‘curing’ them from their parents’ views." It is an uphill battle against several well-funded lobbies and special interest groups. The latest series of incidents, known as "Fistgate" because of the taping of the state-run gay conference for children at Tufts University, has brought to light just how much worse the situation has gotten. "If there’s anything I’ve learned from this, it’s that a free society comes with a big price. Thomas Jefferson was absolutely correct. If you are not willing to stand up and defend your freedoms, then you will probably lose them. Every generation needs to re-learn that lesson." Willing to get involved? The Parents’ Rights Coalition can be reached at 781-433-7106 or by writing PO Box 175, Newton, MA 02466.
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"I
simply couldn’t believe it," says Camenker. "It contained descriptions
of gross homosexual sex acts, and instructions for children when doing
them. It was obscene. And there were ‘tips’ on how to meet other homosexuals.
This was for 11 and 12-year-olds. At first I thought she had made this
all up; it couldn’t be true."