What’s the difference between a Playboy magazine and Fremont Unified School District’s sex-ed curriculum? The curriculum is free! The 9th grade textbook, which teachers unanimously approved, has been the center of a nationwide debate over the schools’ role in parenting kids on sensitive topics like this. In this particular California District, thousands of parents are protesting the jaw-dropping topics in the “Your Health Today” curriculum — including everything from bondage, sex toys, and various fantasies.
“It’s a bit much for me,” said mom Latonya Stevenson. “I’m not comfortable with my child — I mean, wow, that’s the graphics are extreme — oh my gosh.” Another parent said she was so shocked by the contents that she wrote to the author of the book, “and she said the target audience was college Freshman.”
An online petition against the curriculum had 2,500 signatures before this week’s board meeting — at which several moms and dads spoke in opposition of the proposal. “They are very pornographic,” one dad complained. “The pictures are very explicit.” After an emotional back-and-forth, the school board seemed to get the message and pushed back the timeline of implementation until at least next year, when there can be a broader conversation.
Although the victory isn’t a final one — it is a step in the right direction. We applaud these parents for showing some muscle and voicing their objections. Obviously, this is all part of a coordinated effort to sexualize kids. If this were really about protecting children — and not indoctrinating them — Fremont would be implementing the only sex ed with a 100% success rate: abstinence.
Tony Perkins heads the Family Research Council. This article is excerpted from the Washington Update that he compiles for the FRC.
If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail mal.kline@academia.org.
