Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) extended its application deadline for a sex ed curriculum committee serving grades 6-9 to about mid-January.
The district disclosed that it had received enough applicants to form the Sex Ed/Human Growth and Development (HGD) committee, but that not all of the desired learning communities were represented in the applicant pool.
SUSD divides its schools into five learning communities that comprise a school feeder pattern: Arcadia Learning Community, which includes Arcadia High School, Echo Canyon K-8, Ingleside Middle School, and the Hopi and Tavan elementary schools; Chaparral Learning Community, which includes Chaparral High School, Cocopah Middle School, Copper Ridge K-8, and the Cherokee, Cochise, and Sequoya elementary schools; Coronado Learning Community, which includes Coronado High School, Tonalea Middle School, and the Hohokam, Pima, and Yavapai elementary schools; Desert Mountain Learning Community, which includes Desert Mountain High School, Desert Canyon Middle School, Mountainside Middle School, Cheyenne K-8, and the Anasazi, Desert Canyon, Laguna, and Redfield elementary schools; and Saguaro Learning Community, which includes Saguaro High School, Mohave Middle School, and the Kiva, Navajo, and Pueblo elementary schools.
The committee will be tasked with learning Arizona laws establishing processes and guidelines for HGD/sex education materials; discussing and identifying criteria for evaluating resources beyond statutory criteria; reviewing, evaluating, and discussing vendor-submitted resources; reviewing teacher and parental feedback; and recommending resources to the SUSD Governing Board for formal approval and adoption.
Arizona law requires parental permission for any sexual education lessons in grades 6-12. Sexual education is prohibited before the fifth grade.
Even prior to seeking out parental permission, school districts and charter schools must make all sex ed curricula available for review online and in person, and notify parents where these materials may be reviewed at least two weeks prior to offering the instruction.
Development of the curriculum also requires public notification, review, and input for at least 60 days before the governing board votes on the curriculum.
SUSD sex ed curriculum committee application deadline extended – APPLY HERE: ⬇️https://t.co/RTnZsJpYak
NOTE: Even if you are not selected as a committee member, all curriculum review meetings will be open to the public and we encourage you to attend. pic.twitter.com/bOMxtvhou5
— Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity (@ScottsdaleUnite) December 26, 2023
Committee members serve as unpaid volunteers, though eligible certified employees could receive horizontal move hours for committee meetings that occur after the school day. Members are scheduled to meet twice in January, and once in February, March, and April, though SUSD noted that there will be the possibility that more meetings could occur to accomplish their work.
The original application deadline was scheduled for earlier this month, in mid-December, with an announcement of the committee members promised for Dec. 22. The new deadline is end of day Friday, Jan. 12, 2024.
The first meeting date is scheduled less than a week after the new deadline.
At least half of the committee members will be SUSD-certified teachers who possess content knowledge of sex ed/HGD curriculum.
Those deciding on committee membership are three individuals from the SUSD Cabinet, Ed Services Department, and/or the Teaching and Learning Department.
Parent and community member applicants are asked to provide experience and/or expertise relative to sex education, such as any training, prior employment, health care background, and education levels; examples of membership on past teams that were successful; and the main reason for interest in serving on the committee.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On Thursday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, in a party line vote, approved HB 2035, legislation that will strengthen parental input in the Sex Education curriculum offered to their children. A previous version of the bill, SB 1456, passed this year, but was vetoed by Governor Doug Ducey.
According to Sen. Nancy Barto, sponsor of SB 1456, the issues brought forth in the governor’s veto formed the basis of the new version, sponsored by Rep. Gail Griffin. Griffin’s bill was turned into what is known as a “striker” or “strike-all-amendment” in order to attached the modified language of SB 1456.
HB 2305 “restricts sex education instruction for pupils in kindergarten through grade 4. Modifies requirements relating to sex education instruction, including curricula approval and parental permission and notification procedures.” In keeping with the governor’s recommendation, the specifies that age and grade appropriate classroom instruction on child assault awareness and abuse prevention is not prohibited.
The bill does not prohibit or dictate any curriculum in grades 5-12; it “merely ensures that parents may opt their children into instruction on human sexuality,” according to supporters.
On April 20, 2021, the Governor issued an Executive Order related to sex education, which among other matters, requires a public review process to select sex education curricula, directs schools to make any approved sex education curricula available online and in-person and allows parents to review the materials before opting their child in to sex education courses, according to the legislative record.
By Diane Douglas, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction 2015-2018 |
When it came to SB1456 (sex ed instruction, parental rights), IF I were a bettin’ woman, I would have been betting Governor Doug Ducey would take the cowardly way out and have allowed the bill to pass into law without his signature.
Instead Ducey took the malicious way out – on so many levels. He vetoed SB1456 and replaced it with yet another worthless Lord Ducey decree – Executive Order 2021-11. One can’t help but wonder if this veto isn’t a bone Ducey threw to Kathy “no promo homo” Hoffman as it came just one day after he rescinded the school mask mandate she loved so much. But I digress.
Ducey’s statement in the veto letter that sex education in Arizona is “Opt-In” is disingenuous at best; if for no other reason than the conflicts and loopholes in statute – none of which were addressed in his executive order.
ARS 15-102(A) (4) reads: If a school district offers any sex education curricula pursuant to section 15-711 or 15-716 or pursuant to any rules adopted by the state board of education, procedures to prohibit a school district from providing sex education instruction to a pupil unless the pupil’s parent provides written permission for the child to participatein the sex education curricula. (All emphasis mine)
OPT-IN
Except ARS 15-716(E), which defines requirements for HIV/AIDS instruction, reads: At the request of a parent, a pupil shall be excused from instruction on the acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the human immunodeficiency virus as provided in subsection A of this section. The school district shall provide a description of the course curriculum to all parents and notify all parents of their ability to withdraw their child from the instruction.
OPT-OUT
ARS 15-102 (A)(5) reads: Procedures by which parents will be notified in advance of and given the opportunity to withdraw their children from any instruction or presentations regarding sexuality in courses other than formal sex education curricula.
OPT-OUT
And I would remind parents that when the Genderbread Person was taught in a Flagstaff school it was brought into an elementary English Language Arts class. And while technically the teacher notified parents “in advance” the actual subject of the lesson and content of the instruction was not disclosed to parents.
So which is it – opt-in or opt-out? As any good attorney will no doubt tell you the answer is – it depends. But I can virtually assure parents under current law it will be whichever is most expedient for the district, which is opt-out.
SB1456 would have corrected these contradictions in statute and made Arizona truly an opt-in state.
But most importantly what SB1456 would have prohibited is the sexualization of children in Kindergarten through 4th grade.
Ducey’s “rationalization” for his veto of this vital protection for our youngest students is that SB1456 will stand “in the way of important child abuse prevention education in the early grades for at risk and vulnerable children.” It would be laughable if the subject was not so serious and his veto not more threatening to susceptible children. Exposing these young children to comprehensive sex education can for some children have the effect of desensitizing them and making them MORE vulnerable and, in the wrong hands, potentially groom them for sexual abuse.
Child abuse and comprehensive sex education are NOT one and the same and should NEVER be put under the same umbrella. Isn’t child abuse protection services one of the reasons Ducey added $20 million to the $15 million in grant funding for school counselors and social workers?
Any parents who has ever tried to get a school district to provide them access to instruction materials – before or after the fact – knows Arizona is NOT the land of parental rights that Ducey paints in his veto letter. Parental rights statutes in Arizona are about as effective as an old, toothless guard dog. There are no consequences for districts, schools or teachers that don’t comply with statute and fulfill the parent’s request for instructional materials.
As for Ducey’s self-congratulatory back slapping about encompassing what he deems the “heart of the bill” – parent “involvement” and online availability of sex ed curriculum – could have just as easily and effectively been expanded through State Board of Education rules which already set requirement for public meetings to review and adopt sex ed curricula. But whether by executive order or SBE rulemaking neither have stability nor durability of Arizona Revised Statutes. It has become very apparent over the past 13 months that our governor no longer respects a representative form of government for Arizona and continues to rule by decree rather than govern. But, again, I digress.
But no, Governor Ducey, the true heart of SB1456 was protecting the innocence of our youngest, students, ages 5 to 9 years old. Nothing is more important that safeguarding our precious children at the earliest ages, actually all ages, from the evil of Alfred C. Kinsey, Siecus and Planned Parenthood’s comprehensive sexual instruction and indoctrination. Well, nothing other than teaching our children to read, write and do arithmetic something else at which our system fails.
I’m sure glad that I am not a bettin’ woman because betting on Doug Ducey to protect parental rights and children’s innocence is a losing proposition – big time.
