Leon schools defer approval of sex ed course after Moms for Liberty complain about content
The Leon County School Board decided to postpone the approval of this year's human growth and development instruction after local Moms for Liberty members voiced their concerns about the content.
At a school board meeting Tuesday evening, members of the parents' rights advocacy group criticized the district during public comment and said some of the optional material included in the instruction was "dehumanizing" and used "confusing language to avoid the weaponized sensitivity of trans activists."
"It harms children," said Priscilla West, a member of Moms for Liberty-Leon County.
The school board held a workshop on the curriculum in February and met individually with district administrators, some for several hours, according to district administrators, to address concerns. At an agenda meeting on Feb. 27, the board had decided to change the titles of some lesson plans they deemed too "aggressive," and alter other components of the sexual education instruction, but had settled on approving the curriculum.
On Tuesday, however, after a series of public comments from Moms for Liberty members, both board member Laurie Cox and Alva Smith said they would not approve the curriculum.
Most of the issues mentioned by members of Moms for Liberty were in the optional content provided to instructors. Optional content is for teachers to refer to in case a student asks a question that is not in the required material.
According to state statute, districts are required to teach students about sexually transmitted diseases, the signs, symptoms and the risk factors for those diseases while also promoting abstinence as "the expected standard for all school-age students while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage."
It's also up to the districts to determine what falls into compliance with state standards.
Among the complaints were that the word "anal" was used more than 30 times in the instructional materials, a video in the optional instructional materials promoted masturbation and that the information for middle schoolers promoted sex.
However, the word "anal" is only used to refer to the risks of sexually transmitted diseases, and describes anal sex as "the highest risk behavior for STDs, including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS."
Brandi Andrews, who appeared in a commercial for Gov. Ron DeSantis' reelection campaign, also argued a video that depicts a laughing cartoon sponge as a clitoris would promote promiscuity among young girls.
In a few seconds of the video about biological female anatomy created by sexual education website amaze.org, the narrator describes the clitoris only as a sensitive part of the female reproductive system, and the cartoon sponge laughs when touched.
"I honestly just envision a little girl going to school that day, not thinking a thing about this, she learns what a clitoris is. She goes home, now has the seed implanted in her and is wondering what that is, what that feels like and starts masturbating. What does that do for her future now?" she said at the lectern.
More:Read the district's Human Growth & Development Lessons here
While the required instructional material states abstinence is the safest choice, it also describes scenarios that Moms for Liberty-Leon County president Sharyn Kerwin says suggests 16 as an appropriate age for sex.
The section is under Birth Control Basics for eighth graders, which the district says is required under Florida law, and states: "Draw a stick figure above the timeline all the way to the left side. Introduce the stick figure you have drawn by stating they are currently an 8th grader like you. Say, 'The stick figure wants to have children someday, but not any time soon. They are trying to decide if they should have vaginal sex or not. Let’s imagine that they wait until they are older — maybe 16 before they have vaginal sex.'"
"I don't think that we should be suggesting any age to have sex," Kerwin said.
Florida law allows parents to opt their student out of any instruction they do not want taught to their child. In Leon County, a letter notifying parents is sent two weeks in advance.
More:Florida education agency investigates Leon superintendent, pointing to 'personal views'
This is the first year the human growth and development curriculum has been contested in Leon County, according to a district administrator, but Leon isn't the only district experiencing pushback. In Miami, the school board rejected the adoption of a sexual education text book after conservative parents complained.
"Among the group’s complaints were lessons discussing abortion and emergency contraceptives and the terms cisgender or gender-fluid," wrote Sommer Brugal for The Miami Herald.
The school board later adopted the textbook after realizing that it had no other textbook available and that would leave the district out of compliance with state statute.
There is currently a bill in the Florida Senate, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarbrough, R-Jacksonville, that would shift the responsibility for the curriculum for human growth and development to the state. SB 1320 would require DOE to approve all materials used to teach reproductive health or disease. It would also prohibit classroom instruction on gender identity in middle school and declare state binary gender, male and female, as unchangeable.
School board member Rosanne Wood said she doesn't want to eliminate all of the optional content and would rather take a "surgical approach."
This year, Wood said there have been several pregnancies in local middle schools.
"We just do not want to throw this baby out with the bathwater, and baby should be mentioned honestly, because that's what we're talking about, teenage pregnancy," she said.
After the vote to defer, the district will reevaluate the sex ed material and bring back any changes to the board for a vote and more public discussion.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon County postpones OK of sex ed after Moms for Liberty complain
