The City of Norfolk’s public school board is considering a move to adopt a comprehensive sex education curriculum for middle and high-schoolers authored and promoted by Planned Parenthood, according to Fox News Digital and other sources. But some parents are objecting to the curriculum, titled “Get Real,” on the grounds that it is too sexually explicit and ideologically driven.
Sylvia Bryant, a mother of children in the Virginia Public School system, called the curriculum “too inappropriate” and said it covers topics that should be discussed with children only by their parents. “Children at this age are in their shy development stage, and when you encourage them out of this normal development, and you force them into the next level, before they are mentally prepared, you’ve disrupted the normal growth of a child,” Bryant told Fox News Digital.
“Innocence is what makes a child a child. And when you take the innocence of a child away, you cannot put it back,” she added.
According to Bryant, the curriculum encourages children to “find up to three people to make a talk to about sex and sexuality.” Bryant said, “To me, it’s taking away the child’s normal inhibition about those topics. They can become relaxed enough to talk to strangers about them. And then that encourages sexual predators, trafficking and stuff like that.”
Get Real’s website claims, “A recent study demonstrated that, among students who received Get Real, 16% fewer boys and 15% fewer girls had sex compared to their peers who did not take Get Real.” Interestingly, the alleged study does not appear to be cited anywhere on the page, although it is referred to multiple times.
According to lawmakers in other states, however, Get Real’s definitions of what qualifies as “abstinence” and “sex” are questionable. Manchester and Sullivan County (New Hampshire) Executive Councilor David Wheeler stated, “It’s only abstaining from anything that can get you pregnant. They are not saying you should abstain from oral sex, anal sex, girl on girl, or boy on boy.” He added, “The parent needs to know that they are teaching that you can have sex whether you are ready or not and we’re not going to tell the parents.”
The Get Real curriculum has been discontinued in at least one school district following parental objections. Wayne Dorman and Rob Wingo were among those who protested the curriculum in Cumberland County, North Carolina.
“This book shouldn’t be in the nation, much less the school system,” Dorman stated. “If this is going to be talked about, it should be between parents and their kids.”
Similarly, Wingo said, “It’s morally, ethically and spiritually wrong on all accounts.”
