Massachusetts public schools now have an updated sex education framework that call for teaching students about same-sex sexual behavior and the changeability of gender identity.
The framework also calls for teaching students about bodily autonomy, mental health, dating safety, consent to sexual activity, and information about sexually transmitted diseases, according to State House News Service.
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted unanimously during its Tuesday morning meeting to update its health curriculum framework for pre-kindergarten through grade 12, State House News Service reported. It replaces the state’s current framework, developed about 24 years ago.
“The last update to the health and physical ed framework was in 1999,” Governor Maura Healey tweeted. “That’s years before current high school seniors were even born. This is great news, and I’m thankful for the Board’s unanimous approval of these inclusive long overdue updates.”
The framework teaches third graders that sex and “gender identity” are different — and that they needn’t align. This means the framework wants schools to teach third-graders that they can change genders. Here is what the curriculum framework for Grades 3 through 5 says about “gender identity”:
Describe the differences between assigned sex at birth and gender identity and explain how one’s outward appearance and behavior does not define one’s gender identity or sexual orientation.[HE; SE]
Describe a range of ways people may express their gender and that some people’s gender identity (how they think about themselves) matches others’ expectations about what their bodies look like on the outside and others do not.[HPE; SE]
Under the policy, the individual school districts that teach sex-ed choose education materials they use to teach the material included in the health framework, according to a press release from the governor’s office this past June. Or, they could avoid teaching the material by eliminating sex-ed in the district.
“School districts have discretion to determine how the standards will be implemented at the local level,” said Jeffrey Riley, commissioner of elementary and secondary education, according to a press release. “We hope the framework will be a resource of lasting value for schools and districts.”
Some materials that schools use that promote the idea that sex and gender are different include the Genderbread Person, Gender Unicorn, and Genderbread Cookie, among others, as NewBostonPost has previously reported.
The state board vote Tuesday, September 19 came after a summer-long public comment period. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education fielded nearly 5,400 comments via email, mail, and online survey responses during that stretch, according to State House News Service.
A press release from the governor’s office in June calls the framework “voluntary.”
“As with all frameworks, school districts will decide at the local level which curriculum and materials educators will use to teach the skills included in the voluntary health framework,” the governor’s office’s press release states.
The press release also notes that state law gives parents the right to opt their children out of sex education.
Some state legislators want to pass a bill that would force all public school districts to use the state sex education framework if they teach sex education, as NewBostonPost has reported.
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