Scottsdale Unified psychology teacher Mackenzie Onofry taught Desert Mountain High School students a lesson in sexual orientation and homosexuality. Onofry presented slides that state as fact the idea that only 4% of men and 2% of women are exclusively heterosexual and claimed that “sexuality is a continuum” per Alfred Kinsey, despite much of Kinsey’s research being discredited.
Students were also told that homosexuality “spans human history” and that “homosexual behavior seems a natural part of the animal world.” Additional points of discussion included that birth order increases the likelihood of males being born homosexual, with chances increasing by one third for each son born.
Ms. Onofry engaged students in discussions about sexually transmitted diseases, condom usage, and AIDS, and touched on subjects such as primary and secondary sex characteristics, birth control, sexual development, and teen pregnancy.
Students were presented with a slide stating that “conversion therapy doesn’t work” and “women have more erotic plasticity (flexibility in sexual interests) than men.”
Arizona law governing sexual education in schools prescribes the conditions under which the content can be delivered to students. All material used as part of sexual education must be board approved, following a public posting of the material and comment period. Further, parent permission must be obtained prior to administering the training. These conditions do not appear to have been followed by Ms Onofry, Desert Mountain High School principal Lisa Hirsch, SUSD Superintendent Scott Menzel or the SUSD governing board.
Following the requested issue resolution path previously outlined by Superintendent Menzel, a parent sent clarifying questions directly to the teacher who administered the sexual education material to her students, Ms. Onofry. Although Ms. Onofry did not respond, Hirsch did send a response that could be paraphrased that school administration determined that the parent’s child was not in Onofry’s class, so the concern was not relevant.
According to parents who reviewed the response from Hirsch, the message could be summarized as, “if it’s not your kid being groomed by our teachers, don’t worry about it.”
Parents have voiced their frustration with the district administration, Superintendent Menzel and the entire governing board, for their lack of response. The Arizona law on sexual education is clear, and parents are simply seeking to understand that the law has been followed. Rather than provide what would be easily available documentation that the sexual education curriculum approval process was followed, the district and governing board has stonewalled.
As one parent put it, “Just show us the receipts! If the law was followed, if parent opt-in was obtained for the sex ed lessons, if everything is above board, this should be easily demonstrated.” The district has provided nothing, in what some say is a clear pattern of obfuscation by the district when it comes to their teachers engaged in controversial instruction, especially sexuality and gender identify topics.
If any SUSD parents have additional information about the Sexual Motivation lesson taught in Ms. Onofry’s psychology class at Desert Mountain High School, please contact Arizona Daily Independent at editor@arizonadailyindependent.com
