South Australia mother to take legal action after teen daughter exposed to “disturbing” sex ed content

  • Third party education provider “headspace” exposed children to pictures of “trans” bodies with double mastectomy scars in lesson about sexuality
  • Nicki Gaylard, mother of 6, is now homeschooling her children and is ready to take legal action against the Department of Education – “Let children be children”

ADELAIDE (2 December) – Mother of six, Nicki Gaylard, is “strongly considering” legal action against the Department of Education following a presentation that exposed Year 9 girls – including her daughter, aged 14 – to highly inappropriate and explicit sexual content without parental knowledge or consent.

Year 9 girls, including Nicki’s daughter Courtney, were removed from regular lessons and placed into an unsupervised presentation facilitated by external personnel. During this session, the girls report being shown sexually explicit material and hearing graphic references that left them distressed and confused.

"I'm looking to take this forward for the sake of other kids across the country who shouldn't have to go through what my daughter went through; and for all the parents who should never be sidestepped in this way."

- Nicki Gaylard

The presenters made reference to practices including bestiality, telling the girls “don’t Google it though”. The presentation also included people who have sex with siblings, with presenters using the terms “sister love” and “brother love”.

During the lesson, which emphasized themes of diversity and acceptance, images were put on the screen to show the children “trans bodies” – displaying bodies from the waist-up, where scars from double mastectomies were visible.

The school did not inform parents ahead of this session, nor did they provide any opportunity to consent or withdraw their children.

Following the incident, Nicki Gaylard withdrew her children from the school, stating that she could not risk their exposure to unsupervised and inappropriate sexual content within the school environment.

Despite having presented the content across multiple schools, third-party education provider, “headspace”, has refused to allow Nicki access to view the PowerPoint.

Nicki Gaylard said: “I am strongly considering taking this case forward because I’m seeking justice for my daughter, who was deeply affected by what she saw that day. Her childhood was shortened through exposure to completely inappropriate material that headspace won’t even let me see. How can they be happy to show to children what they are ashamed to show to adults? Let children be children.

“I’m also looking to take this forward for the sake of other kids across the country who shouldn’t have to go through what my daughter went through; and for all the parents who should never be sidestepped in this way. That is, after all, our right and our duty as parents – and school authorities should respect our authority to determine what’s appropriate for our kids.”

Robert Clarke, Director of Advocacy for ADF International, supporting Gaylard’s case, said: “Parents send their children to school expecting an education and them to be kept safe, not exposure to explicit sexual content. Yet that basic trust was broken. No parent should be kept in the dark about what their child is being taught, and no child should be placed in an unsupervised session dealing with adult themes.”

“Sadly, Nicki’s case is an example of a larger pattern. Increasingly, parents are discovering that radical approaches to sex education – often shaped by internationally-developed curricula and promoted by activist groups at the national level – are being quietly rolled out. This case is about drawing a firm line: parental rights matter, transparency matters, and safeguarding children is not optional.”

The Department of Education has acknowledged procedural failures, confirming that parents were not notified; required vetting processes were not followed; no teacher was present; and an investigation is underway into the third-party presenter.

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Photos by Giovanni Portello / ADF International

“Don’t tell your parents”: Parents of Austrian primary school students subjected to radical “sexuality education” seek justice 

  • Teacher in Austria forced children to partake in disturbing “instruction” following WHO-Standards for sexuality education in Europe 
  • Students reported nightmares following the classes; Mother states, “Our daughter was robbed of her childhood”; ADF International backs the parents’ case  
Vienna (26 June 2024) – Elementary school children in Upper Austria were forced to partake in disturbing “sexuality education” lessons, without the knowledge or consent of their parents. Over the course of a year, the children (aged 8-10) were subjected to sexually explicit “information,” images, and actions by their teacher, who further pressured them not to talk to their parents about what was happening.  ADF International is now backing the parents’ case for justice following the harm inflicted upon their children by way of the school’s “comprehensive sexuality education.”  Ideological curricula advancing the sexualisation of children are drafted and disseminated by international bodies such as the United Nations. Like most European countries, Austria has introduced “comprehensive sexuality education” based on WHO standards. This case demonstrates the real-world impact of these standards, subjecting children to inappropriate and abusive content in violation of both their rights and the rights of their parents. 

“Our daughter was robbed of her childhood, damaged, and disturbed. It is unacceptable that primary school children are being subjected to radically inappropriate content and that protective barriers against abuse are falling."

- one of the affected mothers

Making matters worse, the Upper Austrian Directorate of Education failed to respond to the parents’ complaints, once made aware of the situation. The parents’ case is based on the fact that not only were they not informed by the teacher as to the nature of her “courses,” but also they were met with a lack of transparency on the part of the Directorate. The Directorate has discontinued disciplinary proceedings against the teacher, a significant development that the parents discovered only from media reports. 

Comprehensive Sexuality Education: A Global Agenda 

Felix Böllmann, Director of European Advocacy for ADF International, states: “What happened to these Austrian children demonstrates the catastrophic implications of an agenda that seeks to indoctrinate children outside of the control of their parents.” 

The radical indoctrination of children through “sexuality education” curricula is a global problem. The World Health Organization (WHO), UNESCO, and other actors within the United Nations system have dedicated enormous resources to the international promotion of so-called “comprehensive sexuality education” (CSE) to children without parental consent. CSE guidelines are rife with examples of the extreme sexually-explicit, ‘information’ children are to be taught from a very young age under the guise of “empowering” them.   

Böllmann continues: “Austria guarantees parental rights, recognising that parents are best positioned to protect their children, and these rights are likewise enshrined in international law. 

Parents should not have to fear the worst when they send their children off to school. No parent should have to worry that their child will be subjected to deeply problematic images and ‘information’ at the hands of their teacher.  

That is why we are pushing back against the surreptitious importation of this radical and explicit content–in this school, for the benefit of these students and their parents. But also for other children and parents who may not yet be aware of the materials being used in schools across Europe.” 

The ideology behind “comprehensive sexuality education” assumes that children should be sexualised from the first moments of their life. For example, Uwe Sielert, a proponent of extreme sexual pedagogy, worked together with the WHO Regional Office for Europe to develop the “Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe” in 2010. These standards promote an aberrant vision of sexuality education for children, far removed from basic sexual health information, in direct violation of the guaranteed rights of parents to raise and educate their children in line with their own worldview and free from harm. They lay the groundwork for cases such as that of these Austrian children who have been subjected to such content at the hands of their teacher. 

“Parents have a great responsibility to protect their children from harm, but they can’t do that if they don’t know what is happening behind classroom doors. And children have the right to be protected from harm. Exposing children to radical ‘sexuality education’ thus violates the rights of both children and their parents,” Böllmann says. 

Comprehensive Sexuality Education: A Global Agenda 

At issue in this case is the compulsory participation of young students in classes containing graphic sexual content in the name of “diversity” education, without the knowledge or consent of their parents, ultimately made possible by European-wide “comprehensive sexuality education” standards. 

Students’ testimony details the disturbing content to which they were subjected, including how their teacher made them watch a graphic film and repeatedly described sexual practices in detail with words and pictures, even when the children objected. After the lessons, the children reported being “disturbed” and were visibly unable to process what they were shown and why. 

“Our daughter was completely distraught when she came home from class. The content was in no way age-appropriate sex education, but rather deeply ideological content aimed at sexualising our children,” says the mother of one of the students. 

ADF International is backing the legal defense of these parents to hold both the school and Austrian authorities accountable for the failure to respect their parental rights.  

“ADF International is committed to supporting these parents in the defence of their basic human rights. The school must be held responsible for its duty to uphold the rights of parents to oversee the education of their children. The same applies to the duty of Austrian authorities to abide by the country’s international law commitments on parental rights,” Böllmann concludes.  

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