Comprehensive sex ed passes House, only needs Senate to ratify amendments

Comprehensive sex ed just got a big leap closer to being on your children’s whiteboards in the near future. Senate Bill 5395 passed the Washington State House of Representatives in the early hours of Thursday morning after a debate that took most of the night.

The bill would bring comprehensive sex ed to every grade of public school in Washington — including kindergartners. It passed the Senate in January, and will go to the governor to be signed into law if the Senate ratifies the amendments set by the House.

“I think there is an agenda by a very powerful lobby in this state to push this through at all costs,” said Kim Wednt with Informed Parents of Washington.

Wendt, who previously spoke to the Dori Monson Show in January, found it ironic that a parental guidance warning was put on TVW as legislators read excerpts from books recommended for grade school classes during sex ed.

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“If you can’t speak to it on the floor or have parents look at it on TV without the warning, why are they pushing this on our children?” Wendt asked.

While proponents claim the sex ed classes would be age-appropriate — focusing only on how to identify inappropriate touching in younger grades and not getting into sexual topics until middle school years — parents say the curricula proposed by sex ed advocacy groups tells a different story.

In one lesson plan designed for second-graders and submitted to the state for consideration, the stated learning objective included students having the ability to correctly identify every part of female and male genitalia. A book recommended for fourth-graders included cartoon images of people having sex.

Wendt believes there is an ulterior financial motive behind these sex ed lessons.

“Planned Parenthood makes money on every phase of this — they’re paid by the government to develop and teach the curriculum, they are referenced in the curriculum, and they make money off of birth control pills, STI testing, IUDs — every service that they’re providing and showing your kids in this curriculum,” Wendt said.

The bill does not appear to be popular with parents. In a poll conducted by the Washington State Office of Public Instruction, 58 percent of parents said they opposed comprehensive sex ed. Wendt pointed out that even late at night — the debate went until 2 a.m. — 30,000 people were tuning in to watch the meeting online.

“It is very obvious that parents are against this bill; they don’t want it,” Wendt said.

If the bill passes the Legislature, parents in opposition plan to fight it at the school board level. Superintendent Chris Reykdal previously told the Dori Monson Show that individual school boards would have to adopt the curricula.

She recommends that concerned parents do everything they can to spread the word and get involved with the Informed Parents of Washington Facebook page. The group is planning a rally in Olympia.

“We’re trying to wake up more and more parents,” Wendt said. “If you’re outraged, tell your friends.”

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.