Fremont School Board Scraps Sex Ed Plan For Elementary Kids
FREMONT (KPIX 5) – The Fremont Unified School District board decided against adopting a controversial new sex education program for elementary school children after a marathon meeting that ended early Thursday morning.
Some parents in the school district are still fuming over the issue.
Many of the concerned Fremont school parents KPIX 5 spoke to Thursday didn't get much sleep after the meeting finally ended.
They waited 10 hours to hear a decision on the controversial new sex education curriculum. The meeting didn't wrap up until 2:30 a.m.
School board members and parents pulled an all-nighter, hearing speaker after speaker weigh in on the curriculum.
In the end, the board voted to adopt the controversial sex ed program for grade 7 through 9, but voted against the program for grades 4 through 6.
The decision effectively ended all sex ed lessons for elementary school students this year.
"Sometimes we make compromises. Sometimes we make decisions that will anger certain people" School Board President Yang Shao
The new program is known as the Three R's: Rights, Respect, Responsibility. It teaches about sexual orientation, gender identity and rape.
"The new education is too much detail for the young kids and I don't want them to learn to early," said Fremont Unified School District parent Helen Yu.
Another Fremont parent, Deb D'Spain, disagreed.
"I think waiting until 7th is way too late," said D'Spain. "To not talk about it is just sweeping it under the rug."
The current sex ed program in grades 4-6 doesn't comply with state law, which requires districts to teach topics such as gender identity.
"We can't go back to the way it was because that is not compliant," said D'Spain. "We just voted down doing this so we are not doing our kids a service. It's frustrating."
But the battle over what to teach and when isn't over. The Fremont Unified School District says it's convening a task force to come up with recommendations for a new sex ed program to be implemented in elementary schools next year.
The district says parents can opt out of the 7 through 9 grade program.
