TORONTO, March 15, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Are teachers more trustworthy sex educators than parents?

Though governments argue that teaching sex ed in schools is about student safety, one leading anti-sex-ed activist recently warned parents that it can actually put kids’ safety at risk. Many parents strongly object to government schools stepping in on such an intimate and personal matter. But is there also good reason for parents to distrust teachers’ motives in the classroom?

“As the sex-ed lessons start to be rolled out in classrooms across Ontario, parents need to critically evaluate the claim, repeatedly made by Premier Kathleen Wynne, that teachers are more trustworthy than parents to give sex education lessons,” Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition told LifeSiteNews.

Fonseca laid out his concerns about teachers providing students with explicit sex-ed in a meeting with concerned parents last September at the Thorncliffe Park Library Community Centre in East York.

“If you read the papers, there are just so many cases of teachers having inappropriate sexual contact with children. How are parents to know which teachers are the sexual predators? I'm not saying that all teachers are sexual predators by any means, but there is a problem in the education industry,” he said.

“If the teacher is attracted to children, won't these explicit [sex-ed] lessons risk arousing the teacher sexually?” he added.

A brief search through the news of sexual assaults by Ontario teachers in 2016 alone brings up disturbing results:

London, On, January 06 – Teacher Roger Reid is charged and arrested for inappropriately touching a female student.

Stirling, February 15 – Teacher Jaclyn McLaren, 36, is charged and arrested for 36 counts of sexual abuse with children, including sexual assault, sexual touching, and making child pornography.

Toronto, February 18 – 30-year-old teacher Anthony Cuccione is charged and arrested with five counts of sexual assault after several students came forward to report “inappropriate sexual touching.”

Niagara Falls, March 7 – Teacher Michael J. Molnar faces numerous sex-related charges from incidents involving two female students, including two counts of sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, and sexual exploitation.

The sex-ed curriculum has discussions of genitalia and sexual consent in Grade 1, homosexuality and gender theory in Grade 3, masturbation in Grade 6, oral and anal penetration in Grade 7, and making a personal sexual plan by Grade 8.

A breakdown of what children learn by grade from the Liberal government's new sex-ed curriculum.

READ: A grade-by-grade breakdown of Kathleen Wynne’s graphic new sex-ed program

An active Catholic teacher in Ontario told LifeSiteNews, under condition of anonymity, that student sexual abuse by teachers is more rampant than parents realize.

“We get a magazine from the College of Teachers called 'Professionally Speaking.' In the magazine there is a section that are called the Blue Pages in which are published the reports of teachers who have been disciplined or convicted of various crimes.”

“Almost every case that is discussed in the Blue Pages is about sexual assault or sexual deviancy. You see cases of female teachers assaulting male students, and sometimes female students. And you see male teachers assaulting female students, and sometimes male students. It’s unbelievable what is in there. It’s disgusting,” the teacher said.

In the March issue alone there were four cases of teachers convicted of being involved sexually with students, included teachers who possessed child pornography, and one male teacher who was convicted for the “sexual touching of four girls.”

“We all turn to it. It’s the first thing teachers go to when the magazine comes in. It’s like the ‘National Enquirer’ of teachers,” the teacher added.

The teacher said that there should be little doubt in the minds of parents that the sex-ed curriculum will become an occasion for more teachers to “act out sexually with students.”

Professionally Speaking's "Blue Pages"

<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2766790/Blue-Pages-March-2016.pdf">Blue-Pages-March-2016 (PDF)</a> <br /> <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2766790/Blue-Pages-March-2016.txt">Blue-Pages-March-2016 (Text)</a>

Fonseca drew attention to findings from the most recent study on teacher-student sexual abuse. The 2004 study titled “Educator Sexual Misconduct” was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education and is the most in-depth investigation to date.

Researcher Charol Shakeshaft found that nearly 10 percent of U.S. public school students have been “targets of educator sexual misconduct sometime during their school career.” The statistics put the number of children abused by school teachers in the hundreds of thousands.

Shakeshaft told Education Week in 2004 that the figures suggest that "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”

Fonseca told LifeSiteNews that parents must question whether or not it is safe to entrust their children to the so-called “experts” tasked with teaching an explicit and graphic sex-ed program, especially in light of concerns that the material might potentially act as a trigger for the adult teacher to begin sexually fantasizing with the students being taught.

“It's time for parents to examine whether, as the Wynne Liberals claim, that little kids won't be safe unless teachers talk about sex with them,” he said.

READ: Don’t believe the Wynne sex-ed program is as bad as many warn? These videos are mandatory viewing

Editor's Note: This report was updated March 17 to include a comment from an Ontario teacher.