Parents protest at DSUSD over new sex education curriculum
A group of parents protested outside of the Desert Sands Unified School District Tuesday morning, voicing opposition over the state’s new sex education curriculum.
Horns are heard in support as parents hold their signs in protest.
“We want to have the right to decide. That right doesn’t belong to the state, it belongs to us the parents,” America Figueroa, a local parent and spokesperson for the group Informed Parents of California.
The right to teach their kids sex education. Around 35 parents showed up in front of the DSUSD offices in La Quinta to protest the state’s new sex curriculum. One parent, Barrett Hoffmann, says it’s conflicting with his personal beliefs.
“I don’t know when parents stopped being parents but that should be the responsibility of the parents to tell them right and wrong and morals and ethics,” he said.
District officials say they held five meeting with parents about the curriculum and acknowledge the concerns. They say there’s homework given to students to encourage discussion with their parents.
“The parents is fully aware of what the child is learning in the classroom and can add to it, discuss it, and mention family values of their own,” Mary Perry, DSUSD public information officer, said.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1097899092452110337″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Some parents are protesting outside of DSUSD offices opposing the state’s sex education curriculum. There are about 35 people protesting. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/K55Z0jM20r”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/K55Z0jM20r&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1097899092452110337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;February 19, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
Under the California Healthy Youth Act (AB 329), there is language that states “The Legislature recognizes that while parents and guardians overwhelmingly support medically accurate, comprehensive sex education, parents and guardians have the ultimate responsibility for imparting values regarding human sexuality to their children.” thus allowing parents to opt out of lessons in sex or health. However, under Education Code 51932(b), the opt-out provision of the California Healthy Youth Act does not apply to instruction or materials outside the context of sex education, including those that may reference gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, discrimination, bullying, relationships or family. For example, the opt-out rule associated with sex education would not apply to a social studies lesson on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in favor of same-sex marriage.
It’s a sticking point that upsets parents like Hoffman’s religious beliefs.
“I believe that there’s only two genders, male and female…and sex is only permitted in that marriage relationship. I mean I don’t know what’s happening,” he said.
It’s a debate that will continue as the curriculum is being put into place in March at DSUSD.
Perry said any parent is welcome to view the sex education curriculum at it’s district offices. They would simply need to make an appointment in order to do so during business hours.
