The Milton public school system is recommending to elementary school children a book that features drawings of naked children and encourages masturbation.
School officials sent a letter to parents and guardians of fifth grade students in May 2021 about the school’s puberty-oriented Growth and Development program, which the school district says is designed “to ensure that our 5th grade students have the knowledge to enter adolescence prepared with facts and confidence.” The letter, from the school district’s director of nurses, includes a list of eight books that the district recommends for students that are available on Amazon and through the Milton Public Library’s online services.
One of those books is It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health by Robie Harris and Michael Emberley.
The book tells children how to masturbate and says that it’s a pleasurable activity. Below is what it says about the topic on page 48. [Editor’s Note: Graphic language follows and appears in the rest of this story.]
Some people think that masturbation is wrong or harmful. And some religions call masturbation a sin. But masturbating cannot hurt you. And it does not result in pregnancy or in getting or passing on infections that are spread by sexual contact. Many people masturbate. Many don’t. Whether you masturbate or not is your choice. Masturbating is perfectly normal. When people masturbate, they usually rub their sex organs with their hands or with something soft, like a pillow. A girl often rubs her clitoris; a boy often rubs his penis. Both the clitoris and the penis are sensitive to touch. A person may have a warm, good, tingly, exciting feeling all through her or his body while masturbating.
The book includes two pictures surrounding these words: one of a boy masturbating and another of a girl masturbating.
Earlier in the book, it tells children that rubbing their genitalia feels “sexy” and features drawings of nude children.
Here is what the book says on page 22 when explaining female sex organs, in part:
The clitoris is a small mound of skin about the size of a pea. When the clitoris is touched and rubbed, the clitoris and the whole body can feel both good outside and inside. It feels kind of tingly, kind of warm and nice. It feels sexy.
Three pages later, it explains male sex organs. Here is what it says, in part:
When the penis is touched and rubbed, a male’s body feels good both outside and inside – kind of tingly, kind of warm and nice. It feels sexy.
The book tells children that homosexual experimentation is normal.
“Sometimes as kids are growing up, boys become curious about other boys and girls become curious about other girls,” the book says on page 17. “They may look at and even touch each other’s bodies. This is a normal kind of exploring and does not have anything to do with whether a girl or a boy is or will be heterosexual or homosexual.”
While school officials are recommending the book to fifth-graders — whose typical age is 10 — Mary Ellen Siegler of the Massachusetts Family Institute says the book should not be read by children.
“It’s Perfectly Normal is one of the most inappropriate books I have come across in my research of comprehensive sexuality education resources,” Siegler told NewBostonPost in an email message. “There is nothing normal about teaching young students that abortion is like a miscarriage, or the details of anal and oral sex. This book has 67 nude illustrations including adults having sex, teens masturbating, a man putting on a condom and more.
“Planned Parenthood’s Get Real curriculum recommends it for students beginning at age 10 and it is also used as a core text in the Our Whole Lives curriculum, two sex ed programs approved by the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and used in schools across the Bay State. Since when is such obscene content required to teach children about natural development and the biology of human reproduction?
“MA children are being sexualized in school under the guise of ‘comprehensive’ health education and by books like It’s Perfectly Normal. It’s high time to hold the bureaucrats at DESE and local school officials accountable. Parents should form local coalitions and work together to oppose graphic sex ed content in schools. Enough is enough.”
Kerry White, chairman of the Milton Republican Town Committee, says the book deserves the condemnation it has gotten in certain parts of the country:
There is a reason why “It’s Perfectly Normal,” which explains bodies, sex and sexual health has been banned by many school districts in the U.S..
Reasonable parents would not object to their children having the facts about puberty at all.
However, when topics like masturbation, anal sex, and abortion are depicted in cartoon style and targeted to children as young as 10-11 years old, it is highly problematic for many parents in our town.
Many Milton parents say they don’t want their children learning about that kind of sensitive information without supervision.
What parents and taxpayers object to is having information about oral and anal sex, abortion, and rape taught to their youth, and sneaking it in as what a child should know and explore is troubling to many.
In recent years the Milton Public School administration and our current School Committee seem obsessed with promoting and proliferating topics around sexuality and sexual activity, and gender fluidity while ignoring core competencies like math.
“It’s Perfectly Normal” should not be in our school curriculum material.
James Jette, the superintendent of schools in Milton, told NewBostonPost that parents can decide for themselves whether or not the content is appropriate for their children. He noted that the school district isn’t forcing the book on anyone.
“Our job was/is to support students as they enter into adolescent years,” Jette wrote in an email message to NewBostonPost. “As you can see from the attached letter, the information was given directly to parents/guardians to review in advance and then assist their children with the activities if they chose to do so.
“Again, the books were recommended and parents were asked to review all materials before going through activities with their children.”
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education could not be reached for comment over the weekend or on Monday this week. And Kimberly Coughlin, director of nursing at Milton High School, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
The letter that went out to parents and guardians of Milton fifth grade students earlier this year is available at the link below:
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