We have currently seen high-profile and thought-provoking issues highlighted on the ballot in Washington state. The issue is generally known as R-90 or Referendum 90 that is primarily focused on sex education in schools.
What is R-90?
A few months back, the state legislature and Gov. Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5395. The bill was specifically concerned about promoting sexual health education in schools for spreading awareness about sensitive sexual issues.
This sexual-ed bill requires schools to develop proper sexual health education programs aligned with the standards of the state. They believe these age-appropriate sexual health programs will improve the attitude of students regarding sexual behavior.
However, parents can request the authorities to NOT enroll their children in such educational programs about sexual health.
The basics of the R-90 bill:
The Senate bill requires schools to provide comprehensive sexual health education. The bill also specifies the age of students so they can fully understand the purpose and objective. Students of grades 6-12 will begin the program in the 2021-22 school year. And for public school students, the program will begin in the 2022-23 school year.
According to the bill, the curriculum and material would be particularly tailored based on the age of the students. For instance, social-emotional learning would be the curriculum for students until grade 4, and then age-appropriate sexual education will be assigned to continue until graduation.
How people reacted to the bill?
We have heard residents saying, “I think the information included in this bill is too much for kids of this age,” One resident also said, “The information is too much graphic for this age, they shouldn’t include this until they get mature enough to understand this.’
But the best part is, that bill also requires getting consent from parents. All the parents will have complete access to sexual health education materials, and even if the parents request, they can exclude their children from these instructions. Parents will have the right to decide what they want for their children.
For some people, both opinions make sense and there is nothing bad in including sex education in the curriculum. But on the other hand, many people are also against the bill and believed that the material can shock young children and it might have a bad impact on their mental health. Because all children behave differently to the visual information they see.
This clearly means dangerous sexual health programs shouldn’t be part of the system until the children get mature.
That’s the reason, the bill gives parents complete access to control the information and simply rejects things that they don’t want to include in their curriculum.
Do you think sex-ed should be included in the curriculum?
So, what’s your opinion? Do you also think that sex-ed should be a part of our education system? What could be the negative impacts on children’s minds? Are they going to make a positive change in society?
If you don’t want them to be a part of the system, it’s your right to choose better things for your children. Luckily, you can fight for it with the help of Kennewick School Board where elected members like Micah Valentine will help you stop the spread of dangerous sexual health education programs, and promote core learning like reading, writing, and arithmetic. So, are you ready to vote?
