State Curriculum Shift Has Parents Up In Arms

A fight over sex education in a Colorado school district is getting very specific, very fast, and parents who thought “health class” meant washing your hands and eating your vegetables might want to look closely at what is actually being taught.

The Alliance Defending Freedom has sent a letter to the Roaring Fork Schools Board of Education demanding that the district stop using the Rights, Respect, Responsibility curriculum, commonly called 3Rs. If the district refuses, ADF wants participation changed from an opt-out system to an opt-in system requiring parental approval.

And here’s the thing: This dispute isn’t merely about whether schools should teach sex education. The argument is about what gets taught, at what age, and how much control parents have over whether their children participate.

According to ADF Center for Parental Rights Director Katherine L. Anderson, the curriculum begins introducing anatomical material in kindergarten.

Anderson’s letter says kindergarten students are taught to identify female anatomy including the “nipples, vulva and anus” and male anatomy including the “nipples, penis and anus.” The lesson reportedly uses a PowerPoint presentation titled “Understanding Our Bodies.”

That’s kindergarten.

According to Anderson, the accompanying material also teaches children that there are “some body parts that mostly just girls have and some body parts that mostly just boys have.” She further claims teachers are instructed to help students understand “how they like to be touched.”

Now, language like that is obviously going to set off alarms for some parents. Context matters, and supporters of age-appropriate body-safety education could argue that teaching children proper anatomical terms and personal boundaries can serve legitimate educational purposes.

But that’s precisely why transparency matters. Parents need to know what the lesson actually contains rather than discovering it after somebody files a legal complaint.

The curriculum comes from Advocates for Youth, which says 3Rs stands for “Rights, Respect, Responsibility.” The organization describes the program as providing knowledge about sexuality while teaching skills intended to encourage healthy behavior.

ADF sees the material very differently.

Anderson’s letter says first graders receive worksheets involving reproduction. By second grade, according to her account, the “Understanding Our Bodies” materials become mandatory and include additional close-up anatomical illustrations with reproductive organs labeled.

The letter also objects to material concerning gender, including instruction that Anderson says warns second graders about a “binary construct of gender.”

And it keeps going. ADF’s complaint examines lessons extending through eighth grade, arguing that the district has crossed the line between legitimate health education and sexually explicit material that parents should have the authority to approve beforehand.

That’s the heart of this fight.

The Post Independent reported that Anderson called on Roaring Fork Schools to “immediately discontinue using the 3Rs curriculum.”

If school officials won’t do that, ADF has offered Plan B: Nobody participates automatically.

“At minimum,” Anderson wrote, Roaring Fork Schools should establish an opt-in procedure that automatically exempts students unless their parents affirmatively choose to enroll them in the material.

That’s a substantial difference.

Under an opt-out arrangement, parents have to know the lessons are coming, understand what they contain and complete whatever process is required to remove their child. Under an opt-in arrangement, the school has to get permission first.

And when you’re dealing with kindergarteners and second graders, that distinction isn’t some bureaucratic footnote.