This comes after a public outcry from parents who reportedly received insufficient notice and were told they couldn’t opt their children out of the curriculum.
A Colorado school district has been put on notice over its "inappropriate" sex education program, which includes teaching kindergartners explicit anatomical terms and asking how they prefer to be touched. On behalf of parents, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a letter to the Roaring Fork Schools Board of Education on Tuesday, urging that the program be terminated.
This comes after a public outcry from parents who reportedly received insufficient notice and were told they couldn't opt their children out of the 3R curriculum. The sex education program includes vulgar content and activities for students as young as five years old.
ADF has asked the school board to, at minimum, implement an opt-in procedure so parents can have autonomy over their children learning controversial subject matter. "The district specifically chose an opt-out model to 'ensure students have access to health education,' then implemented a messy opt-out scheme: only two weeks' (or in some schools less) notice," the legal group said in a press release, explaining that multiple parents who submitted opt-out forms did not have their children excused from the lessons.
According to the 3Rs material, which stands for Rights, Respect, Responsibility, kindergartners are taught to identify male anatomy and at least three female body parts, with accompanying graphic pictures. They are also asked how they like to be touched. First graders are required to complete a reproduction workshop, and second graders receive even more graphic material with close-up imaging.
By the third grade, students are asked to create a "family pride flag" for a course on same-sex parents. Fourth graders learn about how puberty changes the body, such as "wet dreams" and "spontaneous erections." Fifth-grade students start learning about sexual orientation, and the curriculum continues through the eighth grade.
"Parents have the constitutional right to know what their children are taught about sex, gender, and their own bodies, and to opt out when curriculum conflicts with their beliefs," said ADF senior counsel Kate Anderson in a press release. "Roaring Fork Schools is not only introducing kindergarteners to explicit content but also burying the information from parents and denying them a meaningful choice to opt their children out—by design."
"It's understandable why parents are so concerned," Anderson continued. "Roaring Fork Schools must immediately abandon this controversial sex ed curriculum, or at the very least, allow parents sufficient notice to choose what is best for their family."
The Roaring Fork Schools Board dismissed parents' objections at the time as "sensationalism."
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