I was astonished recently when one of my stepdaughters arrived home from public high school in Washington state with a red ribbon painted on her cheek. Sex education in the schools – which conservatives have tried to limit to abstinence-only – has now gone well beyond simple education. Today's students are being coerced into promoting and acting out the politically correct views taught them. It is being done so sneakily, using the authoritative stamp of approval by the public schools, that even my conservatively raised children were cajoled into participating.

There was no way to pull your child out of the day-long event. The entire school “celebrated” HIV/AIDs Awareness.” A student group formed to educate other students about AIDs was responsible for putting on the event, and took over the front part of the school with tables and displays. On the tables were baskets of mint-flavored condoms, and students working the tables encouraged others passing by to take them.

Every few seconds, a loud gong would sound and someone would announce, “Every 12 seconds, someone is infected with AIDs, and every 16 seconds, someone dies from AIDs.” The windows throughout the school were covered with HIV/AIDs awareness messages and posters were plastered on the walls. Almost every light throughout the hallways was turned off for further dramatic effect. The main staircase inside the school was covered with red ribbons. There was a giant wheel that students were encouraged to spin in order to see what disease they would contract. Students were lured into spinning it with the promise of a prize.

Students were encouraged to wear a slick-looking pin featuring a red ribbon.They were given hip-looking little educational pamphlets that contained a free music download from onecondoms.com/freemusic. There were two pages of very graphic instructions inside on how to put on a condom.

There was absolutely nothing in the pamphlet about homosexuality. This is dishonest considering HIV/AIDs affects homosexual men disproportionately. The website aids.gov reports, “Although men who have sex with other men (MSM) represent about 4% of the male population in the United States, in 2010, MSM accounted for 78% of new HIV infections among males and 63% of all new infections.” Instead of warning men that homosexual activity puts them at high risk for HIV and AIDs, which would perhaps save some lives and prevent some misery down the road, the politically correct teaching method would rather pretend that everyone is the same in order not to offend anyone.

The student advocacy group was allowed to take over an entire class period of the ninth graders. They handed out cups with “fluids” in them, and instructed the students to choose another student to exchange fluids with. There was no option to choose abstinence as a teenager and not exchange fluids. Then, members of the advocacy group dropped some liquid in the cup. If it turned the liquid pink, that meant the student contracted AIDs. If it stayed white, the student didn’t contract AIDs.

Each student was given a paper clover and told to write down three goals, one on each leaf. The students who supposedly contracted AIDs were told to rip off one of their leaves, since contracting AIDs had made that goal no longer obtainable, and explain how they felt. Students were given candy for raising their hand and participating, and encouraged to join the advocacy group when they become sophomores or juniors.

A man with the AIDs virus spoke to the class. He said he had contracted AIDs by sleeping around with women. Again, this was a subtle maneuver done to further create the impression that AIDs affects everyone. He told the students that condoms are 99 percent effective. In reality, the failure rate from condoms is probably closer to 17 percent.

There was nothing in the pamphlet about the failure rate of condoms, or advising kids that they would be safer simply by abstaining from sexual conduct. The Centers for Disease Control, no bastion of conservatism, warns on its website, “Latex condoms can only protect against transmission when the ulcers or infections are in genital areas that are covered or protected by the condom.” Additionally, the herpes simplex virus, which is frequently found in the genital area, is transmitted by merely skin-to-skin contact so would likely not be blocked by a condom.

There was nothing about pregnancy whatsoever. Approximately 15 percent of women who use condoms become pregnant.

This kind of indoctrination continues to grow every year, crammed down our children’s throats. Where will it stop? The number of AIDs/HIV awareness days is staggering. There are now 11 of these days each year, listed at aids.gov.

Encouraging kids to use condoms goes against the advice of the experts. Dr. Harold Jaffee, chief of epidemiology at the National Centers for Disease Control, said, "You just can’t tell people it’s all right to do whatever you want as long as you wear a condom. It (AIDS) is just too dangerous a disease to say that." Dr. Robert Renfield, chief of retro-viral research at the Walter Reed Army Institute, has said, "Simply put, condoms fail. And condoms fail at a rate unacceptable for me as a physician to endorse them as a strategy to be promoted as meaningful AIDS protection."

Forcing children to go along with politically correct behavior contrary to their values and religion does not belong in school. Education is for reading, writing, arithmetic and similar subjects. High school students do not “spin a wheel” to determine whether or not they acquire an STD. They can consciously choose not to engage in premarital, underage sex, which will give them a zero chance of contracting an STD or having a baby.

My eldest stepdaughter observed after undergoing that day at school, “The school prides itself on being a top school. If so, then why are they encouraging kids to go out and sleep around, which will hurt their ability to be successful?”