LUSD won’t expand sex ed curriculum to 5th grade
LODI — After receiving feedback and comments from the community, Lodi Unified School District has decided not to expand state mandated sexual education curriculum to fifth-grade students.
The district made the announcement on its Facebook page Thursday morning.
“Thank you for your thoughtful feedback and comments regarding the California Healthy Youth Act,” the post stated. “Based on the comments and feedback we received from our community, staff will not be recommending the expansion of comprehensive sexual education and HIV prevention education to fifth grade.”
The California Healthy Youth Act took effect on Jan. 1, 2016, and requires school districts to provide students with integrated, comprehensive, accurate and inclusive comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education. The curriculum is required to be presented at least once in middle school and once in high school, according to the California Department of Education.
The curriculum must be ageappropriate and medically accurate and objective, as well as appropriate for all district students.
In addition, the curriculum must affirmatively recognize different sexual orientations and be inclusive of same-sex relationships in discussions and examples and teach students about gender, gender expression, gender identity, and the harm of negative gender stereotypes, among other requirements.
Curriculum content must provide information about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and infections; treatment and ways to reduce instances; social views of HIV and AIDS; access to resources for sexual and reproductive health care; effectiveness of contraceptive methods; abstinence; pregnancy; and sexual harassment, sexual assault, adolescent relationship abuse, intimate partner violence, and human trafficking, according to the CDE.
According to the district’s curriculum and instruction webpage, comprehensive sexual health and HIV prevention may be taught in grades lower than seventh. The curriculum is currently taught only in seventh and ninth grades.
There was interest in providing students with a safe place to learn about their changing bodies and to acquire knowledge to keep themselves safe and the district explored this option,” district spokeswoman Chelsea Vongehr said Thursday.
During the LUSD Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, several parents were pleased the district held two community meetings Aug. 27 and Sept. 5 to explain the CHYA to parents, as well as what exactly will be taught.
However, they were not supportive of teaching the new curriculum to fifth-graders.
“I believe, along with many of my friends, that unfortunately we cannot pick and choose (what grades are given this) if we adopt it,” parent Tiffany Nielsen said. “We adopt the whole thing. And there are elements of this curriculum that just are not appropriate for fifthgraders.”
Robert Schlipp thanked the district for taking concerns from parents, grandparents and guardians regarding the proposed curriculum into consideration.
He said while the CHYA prohibits the teaching of religious doctrine, it promotes a doctrine that contradicts the teachings of several major religions.
“I want to urge the administration and board to be mindful of the fact that some of the content of the curriculum presents a worldview inconsistent with many of the family values and faiths we hold dear,” he said. “I urge you to allow parents to teach morals, values and ethics regarding sexual behavior in the home and in places of worship, while sticking to scientific, verifiable facts in the classroom.”
Parents reacted to the district’s Facebook post Thursday, stating they were pleased with the decision. However, some were opposed to teaching the new curriculum to seventh and ninthgraders as required by the CHYA.
“I went to the district office and spent a little over three hours in the portable work room reading through all three levels of the curriculum... and was blown away by the overt sexualization and obvious special interest fingerprints all over the purposed curriculum,” Lizzie Perkins posted.
“If the district does push (the curriculum) through there is no way my kids will be in attendance on the days those ‘lessons’ are taught. And from what I hear, I’m in the majority.
An informational report will be presented to the board at its Oct. 15 meeting about the decision not to expand the curriculum. An action item to approve the new curriculum for just the seventh and ninth grades will be considered at its Nov. 5 meeting.
“If the seventh and ninth grade curriculum is approved I will keep both my boys home from school on the days it is taught,” Tara Reiswig Silva posted on the district’s Facebook page. “I have seen the curriculum and it is absolutely not appropriate material to be taught at school.”