Washoe County School District’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved the proposed updates to the fourth and fifth grade Sexuality, Health and Responsibility Education (SHARE) curriculum with a 5-2 vote.
Trustees Jeff Church and Colleen Westlake voted against the updates, citing concerns about gender-related language and LGBTQ+ content.
Church said there were “so many issues and not enough time,” but that the SHARE program would alienate half the community resulting in more students not receiving a SHARE education.
He also said the program ignores “constitutional religious beliefs,” and that including LGBTQ+ topics is not scientific and should not be included. The board could face litigation if the program was passed, he added.
“‘Inclusive’ is not pick and choose,” Church said.
Board attorney Neil Rombardo said that wasn’t true.
Gender identity and expression is a protected class within Nevada, he said, which actually places the rights of transgender individuals higher than those of religious individuals.
Westlake said she believes the SHARE program is important, but that by containing content that some parents object to it is not doing justice in “including everyone” and being “scientifically accurate.”
“We have an opportunity to make sure everyone is represented,” Westlake said. “Do we really want any of our kids to go without learning about STIs, or learning about their actual body parts? I don’t want to see that.”
What is SHARE?
SHARE is described by the district as being an age-appropriate sex education curriculum that allows students to make informed choices to avoid behaviors that could place themselves at risk, according to Kindra Fox, director of secondary curriculum for the district.
State law requires schools to have a sex education curriculum that includes factual information on the reproductive system, HIV and other communicable diseases, and sexual responsibility.
Students and their families must opt-in to the program and can change their decision at any point.
For weeks before the program begins, communication is sent to parents discussing what SHARE is, when it will be taught, and options for families, Fox said.
About 90% of families opt-in to the program throughout the district, which school board chair Beth Smith said is testament to its popularity.
SHARE coordinator Rochelle Proctor said the current curriculum, which was last approved in 2004, does not adequately cover the topics of healthy relationships, consent, setting boundaries and sexual assault.
The new fourth grade curriculum includes topics such as Understanding our Bodies, Puberty, and Friendships and Consent.
The new fifth grade curriculum includes topics such as: Puberty, Communication and Boundaries, Reproductive Systems, and Liking and Loving.
The proposed curriculum was available for public comment and review for nearly a year, from February 2022 through January 2023. The curriculum was reposted in July of this year for parental review.
Gender, medical accuracy questioned
Trustee Westlake questioned portions of the curriculum, such as the usage of terms “boy or person with a penis” and “girl or person with a vulva” rather than female and male.
“How are we ignoring all medical manuals and videos we’re attaching to these lesson plans, and now we’re choosing — which is not in the Nevada statute — that we’re to be doing this,” she said.
Proctor repeated that SHARE aligns with the Nevada Academic Content Standards as well as reproductive statutes in which that language is used.
“Reproduction, only a female girl, not a female girl and person, can reproduce,” Westlake said. “I don’t care if you’re born female or male or if you get there with intervention. I don’t care if you’re a happy individual, but I think we’re being very misleading by putting that language in there. What other person other than a girl can deliver a baby? What is more inclusive and diverse than female anatomy and male anatomy? Only a girl has a uterus and ovaries.”
Westlake went on to say that there is an incorrect statement in the curriculum that “boys or persons with a penis have wet dreams” when, in Westlake’s view, it’s hormones that cause wet dreams and not a penis.
Proctor said that in the specific lesson Westlake is referring to, those terms are used as correct terminology for body parts aligned to the content standards.
She said the decision to use the language is to make sure all students are included when talking about their reproductive anatomy.
“Only a girl can have a baby,” Westlake said.
“There are people who do not medically fit into either of those categories (boy or girl),” Trustee Beth Smith countered. “One of those categories is people who are intersex, which is a medical designation.”
Trustee Adam Mayberry pointed out that the language is not used in the other SHARE courses.
Proctor said depending on the outcome of the trustee meeting, they discussed going back into the sixth through 12th grade courses to update language as well.
Trustee Church asked if the board would still be compliant if they chose not to update the language, and if they removed any language relating to gender identity or LGBTQ+.
Fox stated she believed it would still be compliant if the language was not updated to include “person with a penis/vulva,” but that removing all information regarding gender identity would be non-compliant with current standards.
The new proposed curriculum recommends for all students to take the SHARE course together, rather than being separated into gendered groups. District practice has been to separate boys and girls into separate classrooms during fourth and fifth grade SHARE presentations.
Trustee Alex Woodley questioned the change.
“That was proposed and approved by our SHARE advisory committee,” Proctor said. “Students are together in the 6th-12th grade curriculum.”
Proctor went on to say that in the current curriculum, students are all learning the same content regardless of gender. She said students have asked, “If we’re learning about the same thing and talking about the same thing, why are we not in the same room?”
It is a norm in other districts to not segregate by gender during similar sex education curriculum, she added.
‘Christian values’ vs. inclusivity in public comment
In-person public comment was split, ranging from individuals who said that children need to be taught “Christian values” instead of sex education, to commenters indicating that the language changes were inclusive and important for a better education for all students.
One public commenter, Elvira Diaz, said her son recently graduated from the Washoe County School District and he is a person who was born with a vulva. She said from the time he was 4 years old he knew that he was a boy, despite being female at birth.
“My son can have babies inside him,” Diaz said, referring to Westlake’s comment that “only girls can have babies.”
Multiple times, Smith was forced to raise her voice at the crowd asking for decorum and threatening to recess, as individuals were being “disrespectful” by clapping, laughing at and arguing with board members.
Deliberation
Smith said that she believes “everyone matters,” and that she read all of the messages sent to the board regarding this topic.
She also said that the fact that 90% of families opt in to the program speaks loudly.
“For all of the people who do not choose this curriculum, our state law prioritizes that right, which is why this is opt-in,” she said.
Trustee Rodriguez said it is time for an update.
“When people say, ‘Let’s get back to the good old days,’ I ask, ‘For who?’” Rodriguez said. “It’s 2023. We need to update these materials. The last time it was updated was during the war on terror.”
Woodley said he approved of the curriculum, and as someone who did not receive any sex education, he said that the areas on hygiene are important, especially for pre-teens.
The new curriculum will be in classrooms for the 2023-2024 school year.
