If any public school instructional material includes sexually explicit content, parents will now have a chance to review that content and opt their child into a lesson with nonexplicit content. The change is due to a law passed by the Virginia legislature that requires local school boards to create policies and procedures to that effect by the end of 2022. So far, several school boards, including Loudoun, Frederick and Clark, have adopted the policy.
“Ultimately, it’s a major improvement for the schools and for parents to have this level of required disclosure and notification,” said Tom Intorcio, associate director of the Virginia Catholic Conference. The VCC, the lobbying arm of Virginia’s bishops, supported the bill. “Parents should feel some measure of support now that they have these guidelines that will give them the opportunity to see what’s being taught in the classroom,” he said. “Hopefully that will go a long way to make sure the content is appropriate for kids.”
John Beatty, a member of the Loudoun County School Board and a parishioner of St. Francis de Sales Church in Purcellville, voted for the measure. “I ran on (the platform of) parents being their child’s primary educator,” he said. “I’ve got a bunch of kids and it’s tough to keep track of everything that’s going on. So, when it’s a very sensitive topic, for you to get an actual notification (will) make sure that it doesn’t get missed or get swept under the rug so you’re more informed and able to help guide your child.”
Some of his constituents believed that this new policy meant schools were going to start teaching sexual content in the classrooms, but sexual content is being taught in classrooms already, said Beatty.
“One of the books staff at the school board meeting brought up, as a book in the curriculum that has sexual themes, was ‘Brave New World’, which I think is a phenomenal book. But I think it’s a book that if your child is going to read it, you need to have a conversation with them about some of the more mature topics in it,” said Beatty. “I think there’s definitely other books that are more gratuitous that are going through.”
Both Beatty and the Virginia Catholic Conference also wanted the policy to include library books with sexually explicit content. “Maybe the teacher puts out some books in the classroom to commemorate some event and it’s optional and there’s no instruction per se that’s going on (with) those books. They would come under the library book exception,” said Intorcio. “That’s why legislators are already looking at library books, so we can expect to see some legislation that will require parental notice with library books this year.”
Beatty is grateful to the legislature for passing the bill and hopes legislation will do more in the future. “I’m sure if it was not required it would not have come up at all,” he said. “The next step for the legislature is to make some kind of notification about library materials getting checked out, but baby steps.”
