Two Clark County school districts are considering new sexual health education curriculum, either in the form of a complete overhaul or new lessons adding to the existing program.
Battle Ground Public Schools is in the midst of adopting high school sex education curriculum that complies with state standards. The district’s current lessons are out of date with existing medical science and must be updated, district spokeswoman Rita Sanders said.
It’s been a long process for the district of about 13,500 students. The school board voted in July 2018 to table its decision after more than 100 people — including Clark County Council Chair Eileen Quiring, a Republican — attended a board meeting to protest the district’s consideration of High School FLASH, or Family Life and Sexual Health.
FLASH is a well-regarded and widely-adopted curriculum developed by Public Health – Seattle & King County. Commenters said they were concerned that it would apply Seattle values to rural Battle Ground. Some also took umbrage with FLASH’s lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation, which the district later said it was never considering adopting in the first place.
More than 2,000 responded to a district survey regarding the curriculum, Sanders said. Now, a committee of teachers, school and district administrators, and health staff are reviewing possible curricula to determine what will best fit the district’s needs.
From there, the curriculum will be available for the public to review, followed by possible board adoption. Sanders couldn’t offer a specific time line on how long it will take to make a final decision.
“We want to take as much time as we need because we want this we want to pick the one that will fit with the district and comply with state law,” Sanders said.
The Camas School District already uses FLASH, and is considering adding those same lessons on gender identity some Battle Ground residents protested.
The unit would be made up of one lesson in eighth grade, followed by two lessons in high school. Those units consist of lessons on gender stereotypes, while teaching students how to differentiate between gender identity and sexual orientation — broadly, whether someone identifies as male, female, both, neither or somewhere in between, versus to whom people are attracted.
In a community listening forum earlier this month, the district pointed to data that suggest transgender and gender noncomforming children experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and bullying.
“We want to respond to student need,” said Assistant Superintendent Lisa Greseth said. “Our goal is to create a safe and welcoming community for each of our learners.”
Still, Greseth said it’s not a foregone conclusion that the district will adopt the gender identity strand of FLASH. Greseth said district staff collected comments from dozens of people at the forum, and is continuing to do so.
“Everybody has a personal opinion,” she said. “That said, our role is to make sure it’s the voice of our community, which includes both staff, students and parents in making these decisions.”
The district aims to make a decision before the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, Greseth said.
Clark County’s largest school district, Evergreen Public Schools, uses the FLASH curriculum. Vancouver Public Schools offers a comprehensive curriculum for growth and development with family life and sexual education beginning in fourth grade. The district also uses the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s HIV and STD prevention curriculum.
