State Board of Education Halts Plans for Health Standards
Nebraska state education officials have halted their plans for new health education standards after criticism from some parents and conservative family-values groups that the content was sexually inappropriate.
The State Board of Education voted 5-1 last Friday to indefinitely postpone the standards, with one member abstaining.
The standards were non-binding recommendations, so local schools could simply have ignored them, but opponents still railed against the proposal.
The new resolution the board passed says members will determine an appropriate time to address health education standards after considering the status of the pandemic, the needs of local children, schools and communities. Under board rules, any member can attempt to revive the process with support from the majority.
The first draft released in March faced strong opposition, as did a second draft released in July, despite removal of many topics that opponents disliked.
The initial draft called for teaching children as young as first grade about gender identity and gender stereotypes and older children about homophobia, transphobia and vaginal, oral and anal sex.
Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts blasted the draft, saying it was developed with input from activists and promoted “gender ideology.”
Advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth had hailed the initial draft as a positive step toward inclusion, but they expressed disappointment when the second draft stripped out most references to gender identity and sexual orientation.
Board member Jacquelyn Morrison, who voted against the resolution, said the vote would prevent the board and the Nebraska Department of Education from talking about anything related to health at a time when the state’s schools are dealing with a pandemic and behavioral health and physical health issues involving children.
“We’re going to vote to say health is off the table for now because it’s too hard,” she said.
Board member Koch Johns said the process has been over-politicized by people using the issue to campaign for future offices.
“Our children should not be about political parties or used as stepping stones to the next office by interjecting topics that have nothing to do with the health standards,” Johns said.
In the original draft, the term gender identity appeared nine times, starting in first grade, when students were to learn to define gender, gender identity and gender-role stereotypes. That reference and several others in later grades were deleted from the second draft. In that draft, the term gender identity appeared twice.
Ricketts said in a statement that he urges Nebraskans to remain vigilant about what’s being taught in the state’s public schools.
“The draft health education standards were politicized and contained non-scientific concepts,” Ricketts said. “The State Board of Education was right to postpone them, however, the battle over what our kids should be taught in schools is not over.”
The Nebraska Family Alliance lauded the decision, while saying the consideration of the standards “violated the trust and credibility” placed in the board.
“Every child deserves an education that is free from graphic sexual curriculum and ideologically driven content, and we encourage Nebraskans to remain diligent in following educational matters at local and state levels,” the group said in a statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska said that the State Board of Education was attempting to appease a vocal minority of Nebraskans.
“When some State Board of Education members chose to gut the draft standards written by Nebraska teachers and health care professionals by erasing LGBTQIA+ and racial equity health topics, they made a choice to put politics ahead of our students,” the ACLU of Nebraska’s Sara Rips said in a statement. “All students have a right to a public education and that education should include honest, inclusive, and age-appropriate health education at every grade level.”
The Daily Record contributed to this report.
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