Protesters flooded a Portland School Board study session on Monday, decrying a teenage pregnancy prevention program because of its link to Planned Parenthood.

The critics, some clutching signs saying “Abortion Kills Children,” urged the board and district to drop the optional Teen Outreach Program (TOP), which is administered through Planned Parenthood in six Portland Public School buildings. The program focuses on preventing teenage pregnancy and drug use, as well as reducing dropout rates.

William Diss, a Benson High School teacher warned of the program's link to Planned Parenthood. He said the organization's mission amounted to “filth” because the organization offers abortion services and encourages sexual activity.

Diss, a longtime critic of the non-profit, said he was suspended for a day by the district in October for refusing to let TOP employees in his classroom.

Ridding the district of the TOP program, Diss said, would be one way to rectify a mistake. “This is a chance to get healed so that filth doesn’t have to be handed to other people,” said Diss, a longtime critic of Planned Parenthood.

Portland Public Schools spokesman Matt Shelby said the district has no plans to pull the program, which is available at Roosevelt, Jefferson, Madison, Benson, Wilson, and LEP Charter School. He believed most critics had few problems with the actual curriculum, but largely with its connection to Planned Parenthood, the non-profit organization that operates in more than 800 clinics across the country.

TOP uses no district money, and is administered through Planned Parenthood by a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services. In Oregon, 1,125 students in Portland and Salem are enrolled in the program.

The protest reflects larger, ongoing criticisms from anti-abortion critics of Planned Parenthood. The organization is one of several that administers TOP across the country, but the only one in Oregon.

A similar controversy over the TOP class brewed in the Salem-Keizer School District this fall, with officials recently announcing its plans to continue with the program.

In Portland, letters from former students and families supported TOP. In a letter, Laura Day and Patrick Learned, parents of a Roosevelt High School student, wrote that the class does give advice about sex education, contraception and family planning. But its larger context has led to “healthy communication with parents, guardians and peers on relationships in general.”

Critics doubted the value of those communications during public testimony, with five speaking out vehemently against the program. William Toffler, a professor in family medicine, admitted he had not seen the curriculum when he testified, but said he supported Diss for his "convictions" and "conscience" for not allowing the employees in his classroom.

Portland board members acknowledged they had received many complaints about the program, but had little to say about the controversy. Board member Trudy Sargent noted that TOP is not mandatory and called it a "fine" program.

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