WBUR – Massachusetts education leaders will vote this morning on advancing Gov. Maura Healey’s recently proposed updates to the state’s sex education curriculum.
The new proposal — which is five years in the making — would be the first update to the state’s existing health curriculum framework since 1999. It also doesn’t need approval from the Legislature, where previously proposed updates have stalled.
According to a report last year by the group SIECUS, Massachusetts is one of 21 states that does not require sex education, leaving it up to local school boards instead.
The report also found the state’s guidelines lacking when it comes to education about STDs and health relationships.
Healey’s office says their proposal provides an “LGBTQ+ inclusive, medically accurate and … age-appropriate framework” for health and physical education in pre-K-12 public schools.
The guidelines are divided into four different grade spans (pre-K–2, 3–5, 6-8 and 9–12) …
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Gay Sarasota school board member walks out of meeting after homophobic remarks
Sam Sachs, Mar 22, 2023
SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — Tom Edwards, an openly gay member of the Sarasota County School Board, walked out of a meeting Tuesday after members of the public made a number of [so-called] homophobic comments.
At a previous board meeting on March 7, Melissa Bakondy, a frequent public commenter with reported ties to conservative group Moms for Liberty, accused Edwards of being a “gay liquor salesman and supporter of LGBTQ grooming events,” and a “lawbreaker and LGBTQ groomer.”
Bakondy did not provide any evidence supporting her repeated claims that Edwards was a groomer.
She also called for an investigation of Edwards by state officials and said parents should have to give informed consent before allowing him to enter schools for reading events with children.
“I am calling upon Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove woke school board [member] Tom Edwards as he is a threat to the innocence of our children and the rule of law in our great state of Florida,” Bakondy said … READ MORE.