‘Shocking’ Scavenger Hunt Part of New School Assignment Workbook

Ramona Bessinger, Rhode Island parent, teacher, and now national advocate against woke curriculum in America's schools. Courtesy of Ramona Bessinger

A condom scavenger hunt is part of a new workbook being used in public schools across the United States.

The workbook, which has been discovered in middle and high schools, is filled with hundreds of pages of sexual assignments.

Rhode Island English teacher and parent Ramona Bessinger, who also is a national advocate against “woke” ideology in schools, told The Epoch Times that parents don’t know about the workbook or its assignments because it falls under the category of what schools call “consumables.”

“Consumables live on shelves in the classroom. Students do not take them home, and once they complete an assignment, their teacher tears the worksheet out of the book, reviews it, grades it, and then throws it away,” Bessinger said.

Kindsey Nelson (L) and Monica Yatooma (R) at a parental rights meeting in St. Clair Shores, Mich., on Oct. 14, 2022. Courtesy of Monica Yatooma

She believes that consumables are deliberately designed to keep parents in the dark about assignments that would upset them.

Bessinger, who has appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” among other programs, is currently on suspension from her teaching position with the Providence Public School District for criticizing the teaching of critical race theory and sexually graphic material being used in the classroom.

The national watchdog group Judicial Watch is representing Bessinger in the matter.

The parties are under a gag order, but Bessinger said she can still talk as a parent. She said that even with all the shocking material she has seen, the assignment titled “Condom Hunt” was especially stomach-turning.

The assignment instructs students to “research the availability of condoms from a local store or other resources.”

It goes on to tell students to complete the remainder of the worksheet by providing the names of the store they found condoms, including giving its address and business hours, and also asks students to list “what kinds of condoms” were sold at the stores they visited.

Unusual Scavenger Hunt

Students are then asked to answer questions about the unusual scavenger hunt, such as “How comfortable would you feel getting condoms here?” It provides multiple response options, ranging from very comfortable to very uncomfortable.

The final question on the assignment asks students if they would “recommend that a friend buy condoms here” and to explain their answer.

Another assignment, titled “Harley and Drew,” asks students to answer questions about sexual encounters between two friends when one invites the other over to his house, where he is babysitting his little brother.

A group assignment involves a matching card game of sexual terms, including several transgender and homosexual terms and expressions.

Unhappy Parents

“Schools are bastardizing childhood innocence with these assignments,” Nicole Solas, a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, told The Epoch Times.

“If I was walking down an aisle of some place like CVS and seeing a teenager with a clipboard holding a paper that says Condom Hunt, I'd probably ask them if they were being trafficked or in some kind of trouble and do they need help.”

Solas, also a Rhode Island parent, made headlines in 2021 when her picture appeared on the front cover of a national news story portraying American parents as domestic terrorists.

The story followed media reports about an FBI whistleblower providing an email to House Republicans revealing that the agency’s counter-terrorist division was instructed to treat and investigate parents as potential national security threats.

Dan Kleinman, a parent who tracks woke school curriculum through the New Jersey-based organization Safe Libraries he runs, told The Epoch Times he thought he had seen it all until learning of the condom hunt assignment.

“What next—fentanyl hunts?” he asked.

When he posted an image of the assignment, it drew more than 5,000 views and a mix of comments.

“News flash. High school kids have sex,” one Twitter user, who identified himself as a firefighter and retired Army sergeant, wrote. “Better they know where to find them so they hopefully use them.”

One parent recognized the assignment and wrote that it was used at her local school for middle school students aged 11 to 13 and about how outraged she was by it.

Curriculum Emphasizes Abstinence

The controversial assignment is part of a workbook circulated to schools by HealthSmart. The California-based website states, “Grades K–12 now aligned with the CDC’s [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s] latest update of the Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool.”

It’s a division of a nonprofit called Education, Training, and Research (ETR).

Among the educational nonprofit’s listed partnerships are the World Health Organization, the National Institute of Health, the CDC, and Pfizer.

One member of its board of directors is Douglas Call, who also is the senior program officer for The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Several state departments of health agencies, including Florida, California, New York, Georgia, and Michigan, and the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital—one of the largest children’s hospitals in the United States—are also listed partners of ETR.

Workbook Used Across US

Kali Lindsey, director of ETR’s young engagement strategies, declined to speak to The Epoch Times about the company’s school materials.

The company released a statement pointing out that its curriculum emphasizes abstinence to teens as the best way to avoid unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STI), but also produces materials to help sexually active teens stay safe.

“As rates of STIs continue to rise among young people, we know that condom use continues to be essential for sexually active people,” ERT stated.

“School districts using the HealthSmart curricula have the autonomy to select the lesson plans that are appropriate to their communities and opt out of any that don’t meet their needs.”

According to Bessinger, the HealthSmart workbook is being used in middle schools and high schools across the United States.

She and Solas told The Epoch Times that the workbook that contains the Condom Hunt assignment is being purchased by schools in response to directives from both state and federal departments of education to create a more diverse curriculum.

Correction: A previous version of the article incorrectly stated that a lawsuit has been filed over Bessinger’s suspension. The Epoch Times regrets the error.