Today we bring you a guest article by Nancy Churchill from Ferry County, WA. She offers some information and suggestions for those who are concerned about State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s all out effort to completely restructure sex education in Washington State. Mr. Reykdal’s desire is to start teaching “gender identity” beginning in kindergarten. He supports the F.L.A.S.H. curriculum. Please give her article a read and share your thoughts with her and others.Do you know anyone who thinks that the local school board should have final control of the curriculum taught in your schools?
The state OSPI is working to take the curriculum control for Sexual Health education away from your district. You need to know about the Sexual Health Work Group.
Please ask your community members who want to stop Mandated Comprehensive Sex Education IN ALL GRADES (including K-8) to take this survey –> OSPI MCSE Survey
Here’s what you need to know about this survey:
Page 1 – Demographic Info
Page 2 – Describes CSE and asks for comments. Here are the KEY QUESTIONS and suggested talking points.
Q5: Should comprehensive, age-appropriate, medically accurate sexual health education be required for all students in grades K-12?
Allows a Yes/No + Comments.
Please say NO
Comment points:
1) Do not want Sex Ed in K-8. (provide your personal “why”)
2) Comprehensive implies that Sex Ed would be included in ALL subjects. New curriculum for basic subjects like literature, math, science might also be necessary. We need to strike the word “Comprehensive” from this proposed legislation.
3) Focus on Funding… this is an unfunded mandate. Your district will have to research the new K-8 Sexual Health curriculum, buy it, train K-8 health teachers (and possibly hire a dedicated instructor). Since many rural families do NOT want their K-8 student to receive sex ed training, our districts will LOSE students (and funding) which hurts the delivery of basic education.
Q6. Are changes needed to current statutes related to sexual health education (e.g. Healthy Youth Act, AIDS Omnibus Act)?
Yes/No/Not Sure
Please research this for yourself.
I selected “No” because there are no comments allowed for this section. My concern is that a “Yes” would encourage the task force to recommend trying to strengthen the Healthy Youth Act and Aids Act.
Q7. Please describe the benefits associated with requiring all public schools to offer comprehensive sexual health education to students in all grades.
> No benefit to mandating CSE in all grades. This mandate would divert valuable education funding from basic education.
> Would also drive some families to withdraw from public schools
Q8. Please describe the challenges associated with requiring all public schools to offer comprehensive sexual health education to students in all grades.
> Finding the Funding for new K-8 Curriculum
> Need to focus on Basic Education
> Training Staff
> Does not meet the needs of our community.
Example: Our school does not have the budget for new K-8 Sex Health Curriculum and teacher training. We want to focus on our Basic Education and improve our test scores so that our students can get jobs. In addition, this does not meet the needs of our community, and families would pull out of the district over it, which would hurt the entire student body.
The last question asks about familiarity with OSPI Learning Standards.
This questionnaire is anonymous. However, most surveys have the ability to collect the user’s IP Address. It’s possible that multiple surveys from the same IP might get discarded.
Please pass this information along to anyone who is interested in preventing State Mandated Sex Health in K-8 grades. Let’s work together to keep local curriculum control in our School District and School Boards.
Reach out to your School Superintendent, School Board Members, Local County Commissioners, City Council Members, PTA members, other concerned community members.
Respectfully Yours,
Nancy Churchill, Republic WA, Ferry County
206-605-3068
email: nancydchurchill at gmail dot com
P.S. Feel free to contact me by email or phone for more information on this issue.
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