VIRGINIA, USA — Officials are giving a look into the draft model of a policy schools across the Commonwealth will have to follow saying educators must notify parents any time school materials include sexually explicit content.
Earlier this year Virginia lawmakers passed Senate Bill 656 with a vote of 52-46. The bill requires the Virginia Department of Education to develop a process where local school boards notify parents of any instructional materials that include sexually explicit content. The parents must also have the ability to review the material and an alternative option with nonexplicit materials must be provided at the parents' requests.
The Department of Education has until July 31 to develop the policy and school boards will have until next year to adopt it.
RELATED: Virginia bill would notify parents any time school materials include sexually explicit content
A draft of that policy was released ahead of a public comment through the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall.
The draft includes instruction on development, terminology, guiding principles and related laws.
DEFINITIONS
The sample policy defines "sexually explicit content" as:
Any description of or (ii) any picture, photograph, drawing, motion picture film, digital image or similar visual representation depicting sexual bestiality, a lewd exhibition of nudity, as nudity is defined in Section 18.2-390, sexual excitement, sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse, as also defined in Section 18.2-390, coprophilia, urophilia, or fetishism.”
The policy says schools must contact parents any time school "instructional materials" include sexually explicit content. The draft policy defines "instructional materials" as:
Any content used by one or more students for an educational purpose, regardless of (a) its format, whether printed, representational, audiovisual, electronic, or digital (such as materials and software applications accessible through the internet), or (b) the time, place and manner in which the content is used. Library materials are considered instructional materials when used (i) for completion of an assignment, or (ii) as part of an academic or extracurricular educational program. This includes any division, school, and/or classroom purchased or created assessments.
The draft policy states that standardized national or state assessments, such ACT, SAT, NAEP, and AP or SOL exams are not included as "instructional materials."
IDENTIFYING 'SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONTENT
According to the draft policy leadership at each school will be responsible for establishing a process for identifying instructional materials with sexually explicit content.
Before the school year starts, schools will need to identify the materials that may be used. When determining whether materials contact explicit content, teachers, principals and staff should consider student age and maturity of the students and whether a parent might reasonably consider the instructional content harmful to their child.
Staff must consider these four things when determining whether or not to notify parents:
- Parents of children in any grade should be notified in advance when any portion of instruction materials to be used are rated Mature Audience (MA) or R will be used;
- Parents of children in grades K-8 should be notified in advance when any portion of instruction materials to be used are rated PG-13 or TV-14;
- Parents of children in grades K-5 should be notified in advance when any portion of instruction materials to be used are rated PG or TV-PG; and
- With respect to unrated instructional materials, parents should be notified if any portion contains sexually explicit content.
NOTIFYING PARENTS
The draft proposal says schools must contact parents at least 30 days prior to the use of any instructional materials with sexually explicit content. Principals will be required to provide a written notice to parents that identifies the materials and informs the parents of their right to review the content and have their child use an alternative.
Those notices can be provided in writing to parents through U.S. mail, e-mail, and/or in person at a parent-teacher meeting.
PARENTAL RIGHT TO REVIEW
Finally, the draft policy states that principals must maintain a current list of instructional materials with sexually explicit content by grade and subject on the school's public website.
Parents must be able to have access to review the materials online unless "not technically feasible or prohibited by copyright protection."
If a parent changes their mind, they will be required to provide a notice to the school in regards to which materials to use.
Click here to read the full draft policy.
DRAFT REACTION
Hundreds of people have left comments regarding the policy on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall website.
"I want to thank you for the proposed legislation to put parents in back in the driver’s seat of the education of their children," wrote one person who identified as a Fairfax County parent. "Administrations in many counties of VA have shown the intent to cut off the input of parents and force material upon children in schools. It is time for this to end."
While some parents are in support of the policy, others claim it is confusing or disrespectful to teachers.
"I am a parent of a high school student. I have read through this document. Several times it speaks of respecting parents choices, thoughts, and decisions. It fails to mention respecting teachers and administrators and their broad educational background in educating our children in the public schools," wrote another person identified only as a James City County Parent. "Please let teachers teach and librarians make decisions about what is appropriate in public schools. A parent can always choose to homeschool or private education for their children."
Other commenters say the policy doesn't go far enough to protect children.
"Parental notification, review and consent should be for all materials students may encounter or use within the public school system not just those outlined in this policy," wrote Jamie Jefferson. "This policy should strictly outline and include instructional material in the teachers classroom they may use, in the school's library and any info the student may be presented to include internet resources, audio and visual resources like videos etc."
Click here to read the full list of comments.
The draft model has some LGBTQIA+ student advocates concerned about what the Commonwealth will deem sexually explicit.
“We saw recently that the Virginia Department of Education released some guidance on sexually explicit materials and they’re actually saying homosexuality is sexually explicit. I am a gay man. I am not sexually explicit. I am fully clothed right now, no way sexually explicit but unfortunately some folks in the Virginia Department of Education think my existence is sexual inherently," Aaryan Rawal, an Organizer with the Pride Liberation Project said.
Rawal was one of several people protesting outside the Fairfax County Public School board meeting Thursday evening.
As well as some people protesting what they call a lack of parental rights.
“If they’re going to teach anything about family, they need to be teaching them about the importance of a mother and father raising a child and they’re married and having the roles of a man and a woman in order to have a well-balanced human being," said Freddy Burgos, the Vice Chairman of the Republican Hispanic Assembly of Virginia.
Virginia school boards will be tasked with approving a sexually explicit material policy by January 1, 2023.
The bill was one of several dozen bills Youngkin identified as a legislative priority.