On February 23, 2021, the BGSD sent an email to parents notifying them that there was an opportunity to serve on the “Sexual Health Community Advisory Group. An article ran in The Reflector on February 24th. Volunteers needed to sexual health advisory group | News | thereflector.com Applications closed on March 3rd. This group is tasked to review and make recommendations on the Sex Ed curriculum to be used for 5th through 8th graders. In this article we’ll share the public record requests we filed and provide the districts responses so you can review and come to your own conclusions. This is an investigative report designed to shine light on the process used to choose members of the working … [Read more...]
Washington State Sexual Health Workgroup Recommendations – Part 2/2
In 2019, the Legislature directed OSPI to convene a workgroup to review sexual health education provisions in state law and state learning standards, and to consider the merits and challenges of requiring all K–12 schools to offer comprehensive sexual health education (CSHE). The workgroup recommends providing all students in grades K–12 with access to CSHE, and clarifying the expected content of instruction for the younger grades. First question is: what is "comprehensive" sex health education? Who gets to define what that means? This is important to ask because, based on the OSPI survey data we reported in our blog article of December 21, 2019, the rates of STD's have gone up 23-120% … [Read more...]
HIV and Sexual Health – KNOW Curriculum – Grades 5/6
Washington State requires HIV/AIDS education starting in 5th grade and continuing through high school. The current recommended material is the subject of this article. We've tried to condense the essential pieces here. KNOW Curriculum: Grades 5-6 The last updates to the KNOW curriculum were done in 2014. The document is 95 pages long in PDF format. (http://www.k12.wa.us/HIVSexualHealth/pubdocs/KNOWGrades5-6.pdf) In this review we will share details from the document and make observations and comments. We encourage the reader to go through the document themselves and either confirm our observations or come to their own conclusions. We offer to share all comments from readers … [Read more...]
FLASH – High School – Part 4/5
In this installment of our reporting on, and education of the public on the FLASH curriculum, we cover the High School Curriculum. This information is presented under the Fair Use Doctrine. That is, it covers part of the material exactly as accessible on the King County and Etr.org website. This material is not to be reproduced nor used for nor sold for profit. It's solely intended to inform and educate. Here is a link to the curriculum website: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/locations/family-planning/education/FLASH/middle-school.aspx The FLASH website is: https://www.etr.org/flash/ The materials for teaching can be purchased … [Read more...]