Loudoun County schools will now need parental permission before exposing kids to sexually explicit content.
The Loudoun County School Board in Virginia will now mandate schools tell parents when their children may be exposed to sexually explicit material after parent protests there in previous years made national news.
Tuesday, the school board for the suburbs of Washington, D.C., enacted Policy 5055, which calls for “parental notification of instructional materials with sexually explicit content.” The goal of the policy is to bring the school district into line with this year’s model rules for the Virginia Department of Education regarding instructional materials having sexually explicit content.
Policy 5055 states: “At least thirty days prior to the intended use of any instructional materials with sexually explicit content, schools shall provide notice to parents that (i) specifically identifies the instructional materials with sexually explicit content, (ii) informs parents of their right to review such instructional materials, and (iii) informs parents of their right to have their child use, in a non-punitive manner, alternative, instructional materials that do not include sexually explicit content.”
Course syllabi, email alerts, newsletters, and “learning management systems” were all listed in the policy as ways to let parents know when sexually explicit content would be used in the classroom.
Such content is described in the policy as “any description of or (ii) any picture, photograph, drawing, motion picture film, digital image, or similar visual representation depicting sexual bestiality, [or] a lewd exhibition of nudity,” as well as “sexual excitement, sexual conduct, or sadomasochistic abuse,” and “coprophilia, urophilia, or fetishism.”
The policy authorizes the creation of a “current list of instructional materials with sexually explicit content intended to be used in classroom instruction, by grade and subject on the LCPS website.” Before creating the list, the school district will review materials to determine whether they contain content that could be regarded as sexually explicit.
The Republican governor Glenn Youngkin signed Senate Bill 656 into law in April, as The Christian Post reported.
The Virginia Department of Education was required by law to create model policies by July 31 covering “parental notification of any instructional material that involves sexually explicit content” for use by school boards throughout the state. By January 1, 2023, each school district was expected to have adopted such policies.
In recent years, parents in Virginia and around the US have flocked to school board meetings to voice their opposition to books and other courses they believe contain sexually explicit content.
One novel in particular, Gender Queer, has drawn criticism for its explicit description of a child engaging in oral sex with an adult guy.
In the largest school system in the state’s nearby Fairfax County, Virginia, parent Stacy Langton spoke to the school board to express her disapproval of the inclusion of the books Lawn Boy and Gender Queer in high school libraries. The books were first put on hold while the school district conducted a review, but they were eventually brought back last November.
The Loudoun County School Board passed a rule last year allowing transgender children to use the restroom and locker rooms regardless of their biological sex. Additionally, the regulation mandates that teachers use the pronouns and names that transgender kids choose when addressing them.
Policy 8040 was enacted despite parents’ concerns about a boy wearing a skirt having sexually assaulted a girl in a district high school bathroom.
At a heated school board meeting where the board was hearing comments on the proposed Policy 8040, the school district maintained that no such assaults had occurred in school bathrooms.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, on the other hand, insisted that district administration was aware of the assault. A local news station obtained an email issued by Superintendent Scott Ziegler on the day of the attack alerting school board members that “a female student stated that a male student assaulted her in the washroom” earlier that day.
The perpetrator of the spring 2021 sexual assault went on to commit another assault at another high school in the district, where he had been moved after the first. The second occurrence occurred after the bathroom policy was approved.
Loudoun County Public Schools also made headlines in 2021 for suspending a Christian teacher who voiced concern about proposed policy 8040, specifically its requirement for teachers to address students by their preferred names and pronouns.
Byron “Tanner” Cross, a teacher at Leesburg Elementary School, testified before the school board that he could not comply with the policy in good conscience because it was in direct conflict with the teachings of his Christian faith. He was placed on leave soon after, but was later returned as part of a legal settlement.
Parental outrage at the inclusion of sexually explicit content, LGBT ideology, and racial aspects in school curricula has generated national grassroots campaigns to elect school board candidates who reject such beliefs.
Tiffany Polifko was elected to the Broad Run School Board in Loudoun County last month.
Polifko’s campaign website emphasized her concerns about “more political and ideological influence in the curriculum” and the promotion of “ideas, attitudes, and viewpoints that may be in direct contradiction with parental values.”
Polifko’s victory comes a year after Youngkin defeated his Democratic opponent, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. After McAuliffe made national headlines for saying that he doesn’t “think parents should be dictating to schools what they should teach,” some experts feel the argument over parental rights in education had a big influence on Youngkin’s triumph.
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