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Three Texas women are taking a stand on biblically-based morality in the settings where they live and work.
Terri Leo of Spring, near Houston, described herself as the least likely person to have led the charge on including a definition of marriage in public school textbooks. The former teacher and now stay-at-home mother of three children said, “That’s the way the Lord does this. He’ll call you outside of yourself so you know the success is not your own.”
Pat Hardy, a social studies coordinator in Weatherford, is eager for parents to realize the influence they can have at the local level through health advisory councils that recommend a sex education curriculum that reflects community standards.
“Everything taught in sex education class is a totally local option,” Hardy noted.
Arlington schoolteacher Yolanda McPherson believes God directed her to teach in a public school setting where she “wrestles against all kinds of principalities.” She admits it is a day-to-day challenge when the culture presses for accommodating unbiblical views. “It’s important, especially during this time, that Christians stand firm and hold fast to our beliefs.”
Looking back on the recent election cycle, Leo, a State Board of Education District 6 member, said, “I think we saw that Christians who were sleeping are finally not going to take it anymore.”
Having enrolled her own children in a private school, Leo draws questions from people who wonder why she seeks to influence public schools. “I could not in good conscience sit by and do nothing,” she stated. “We all have a stake in the next generation of kids. They’ll make the laws we’ll live under.”
Leo, a member of an Assemblies of God church, acknowledged the influence of her faith on her convictions. “That’s what I rely on for strength.”
When it comes to defending the inclusion of a traditional definition of marriage in public school textbooks, Leo said she is simply upholding the Texas law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. “I’m standing on the law, not my personal conviction, even though that’s what I believe and what a majority of Texans voted for.”
While political opponents questioned how she got elected to public office on a low-budget grassroots campaign, Leo said, “You cannot outdo mad moms?somebody who is impassioned about the issue.”
Hardy has been an educator for more than 30 years and was honored recently as the outstanding Educator of the Year at the Texas Council for Social Studies Conference. In her role as the District 11 member of the State Board of Education, Hardy is convinced that “knowledge is power” and encourages parents to get involved in the process of selecting proper sex education material for their local schools.
“Each school district by law should have a health advisory council. It should not be predominantly school people, but community people?ministers, doctors, parents, community activists. They should decide what reflects that community and what should be put in by way of a health and sex education curriculum.”
Hardy said she is pleased with the curriculum called Worth the Wait (www.worththewait.org) that was selected by her local school district in Weatherford. Developed by doctors at Scott and White Hospital in central Texas, the curriculum promotes abstinence as the healthiest choice for adolescents.
“Parents can call Podunk Independent School District and say, ‘Do you have a health advisory council and who’s on it?’ If the council is all teachers, that’s not what the law requires,” she said.
In Arlington, McPherson has seen homosexual activists influencing what children are taught in public schools with library books depicting two lesbians as parents of a child. When that scenario became reality for a student in her elementary classroom, McPherson was careful “not to push my beliefs on anyone,” adding, “but they knew I
