Earlier this year, a member of the MIP Facebook group brought something troubling to our attention regarding sex ed in the Boston Public Schools. She had received parental notification of an upcoming “Sexual Health Education” unit and had questions about how to opt out, but the paperwork she received was confusing. When we saw the documents, warning bells went off immediately.
The first letter she shared said, “Families have the right to opt their student out of any lessons of the curriculum that primarily involves ‘human sexuality issues’ without penalty…” and then references Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 71, § 32A (the opt out law) and the BPS Bulletin on Human Sexuality Education. It also lists five “Lessons for Opt-Out.”
But then she shared a second page that contained a longer list of lessons, with only two lessons labeled as “may opt out.” There were other lessons that also seemed to “primarily involve human sexuality issues,” such as lessons on sexual intercourse, sexual anatomy, gender identity and “non-heterosexual orientations,” but they were not included in the opt out list. Based on these documents it looked like the Boston Public Schools was trying to tell parents that they could only opt out of some sex ed lessons, and not others – a potential violation of the MA sex ed opt out law.
Over the next few months we dug deeper into this issue, and we discovered that the BPS had undergone a major overhaul of its health and sex ed program during the current school year. The district has moved to exclusively using Rights, Respect, Responsibility (the 3Rs), one of the most graphic sex ed curricula available, across grades K-12 for sex ed. In addition, as we suspected, they are trying to limit the number of lessons from which parents can opt out.
One such example is from the portion of the BPS Sexual Health Education Grade 6 Lesson Chart below, where two lessons are marked “may opt out” in red, and two others are not. One of the lessons that, according to the BPS, is not eligible for opt out includes teaching kids about “the three types of sexual intercourse.” We have highlighted these issues in yellow.
The apparent attempt to restrict which sex ed lessons BPS parents can opt out of, including forcing 6th graders to learn about non-reproductive forms of intercourse, is only part of the problem. Equally troubling is the fact that because of how the district has worded its parental notification letter, BPS parents might not realize that even if they opt their child out of sex ed, they will still be taught many of the objectionable lessons.
Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center sent a letter to the BPS to notify them of this potential violation of parental rights, as well as the MA sex ed opt out law. You can read the letter from Attorney Whiting below.
The BPS has yet to respond to this letter. However, we investigated further and discovered more about this new sex ed program, including the progressive-funded outside organization that may have influenced the program revisions, as well as some of the graphic and disturbing lesson plans. To read our full investigation on the Massachusetts Informed Parents substack, click below.
The Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center is actively looking to connect with Boston parents regarding this issue. If your child attends the BPS, what type of sex ed notification did you receive this year? If you submitted an opt out letter, was your child opted out of all of the lessons, or only some? If you are a BPS parent who thinks that your parental rights or the sex ed opt out law have been violated, contact the MLLC today.
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