Readers respond to Question of the Week: Are parents right to protest Pride event?

Pride and school children

Pride events are not wanted or needed at levels some are asking or demanding for. It shouldn't take doctors or teachers long to figure out kids less than middle school or possibly even less than high school would find this irrelevant to their lives. As I was led through the school indoctrination of what is questioned by children at what age I certainly don't remember anyone thinking grade school children should be questioning their sex. Perhaps if we don't press this kind of unwarranted information upon them there won't be so many questions that aren't relevant to their age bracket. I have a BA in education from CSUF and two of my own grown children and doubt I'm alone with my logic. — Vance Frederick, Long Beach

It is a parent's right

I have very strong thoughts about sex education in the elementary grades and middle schools. I'm extremely against a teacher imposing his or hers (probably wrong pronouns) views on students. And I'm absolutely against teaching the LGBTQ view on sexual orientation. That should be the parents' right to educate their children. Not by someone who has their own views.

What happened to math, history, English etc.? Don't you think that the LGBTQ is getting too much press, therefore too much power? What about our homeless problems, migrants, drugs and trafficking to mention a few of our problems. Too much power and too much press is not a good match. — Mary Ann Hunter, Lomita

Sex education in school

I was a teacher with the LAUSD for 20 years. One of the topics I taught in my health education course was (gasp!) sex education. The students' ages were 12 on average. The parents didn't protest their child's potential exposure to such sensitive subject matter because they had no need to do so. How could that be? So simple and logical: Each student took home a permission form to be signed by a parent or legal guardian. The form identified the topics to be discussed, and it was the parent/guardian's decision to make, not the district's. No protests, no raised blood pressure — just common sense, of which there now seems to be a shortage. — Diane Pfahler, Woodland Hills