In a Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) poll, more than 84% of parents are not in favor of a gender-inclusive sexual education curriculum for children in grades four through eight, according to ABC 7 News.
Parents were asked about the proposed “Family Life Education Instructional Materials” (FLE), a sexual education curriculum which focuses on making lessons “gender inclusive,” stating that puberty is not gender-specific, according to ABC 7 News. FCPS, the school board and the FLE Curriculum Advisory Committee allegedly withheld the survey results from the community, drawing backlash from parents. (RELATED: ‘Disdain For Parental Input’: Virginia Parent Rips School Districts Nationwide During McCarthy-Hosted Event)
“This school board has got to go,” Maria Sherwell, a Fairfax County parent, told the outlet. “This makes Loudoun look calm. I feel and I’m not alone, that their role is to take control of our children and push parents out of the room. It moves their agenda forward.”
Of the 1,642 parents surveyed, 3% of parents felt “mixed” about the gender-inclusive curriculum, 1% were unsure and 11% supported the curriculum, according to ABC 7 News. Approximately 100 FCPS employees surveyed opposed the curriculum while 14 supported it.
The FLE curriculum includes normalizing the reproductive process to create a “gender inclusive” environment. All 10th-grade students will get a “testicular self-exam and breast self-awareness” lesson and learn about “sexuality and gender as aspects of one’s total personality” including “how sexuality develops throughout a lifetime.”
Parents watch as children step onto a Fairfax County school bus October 15, 2002, at Police headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Though “gender inclusive,” students who are “assigned male” will not view the video “Janet’s Got Her Period” or be involved in the “explicit instruction on the use of menstrual pads.” Parents within the school district had until Dec. 1 to comment on the curriculum.
“The only thing obvious about the composition of the committee is that when they were faced with a survey that overwhelmingly was not in favor of something they were in favor of, they dismissed the survey,” Bonnie Myshrall, president of Fairfax County Parents Association, a grassroots group of parents focused on parental rights, told ABC 7 News. “Had the survey produced results that they agreed with, they no doubt would have sung its praises and used it as a basis to move forward.”
FCPS and Fairfax County School Board did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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