By MADDY VITALE
The topic was the much talked about revised health and sex education curriculum. Tuesday night, parents listened to Ocean City school officials explain some of the new guidelines and afterward, students and parents got to ask questions.
The lightly attended session was the first in three meetings scheduled. The second will be at the Intermediate School Wednesday night at 6 p.m. and the third, also at 6 p.m., will be held at the Primary School on Thursday.
“We will talk in depth,” Schools Superintendent Dr. Matthew Friedman said, starting off the meeting.
He told the parents and guardians in the audience that the district administrators wanted to explain the local rule and impress upon the community that it is up to the district to implement as they choose, the curriculum under the revised guidelines, not the state.
“We are here tonight because we want to give you factual information,” he said. “We want to continue to tell you our plan of attack with the state standards.”
The sex education curriculum, developed by Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration in 2020, offers new guidance on how schools should teach sex and gender identity. Controversial topics such as sexual orientation and abortion have ignited a storm of opposition among Ocean City parents and other members of the community.
In a 6-5 vote on Aug. 24, the Ocean City Board of Education approved the revised standards for health and sex education for Ocean City’s three schools.
Since then, a rally and a City Council meeting Sept. 8 continued the strong opposition by some in the community to the state standards.
Lauren Guenther, the district’s Curriculum Coordinator, told the audience Tuesday that no matter what, parents can always opt out their child from any portion of the revised curriculum.
She went over a slide presentation on different exercises that could be done under the curriculum such as “Take a Stand,” which reflects on students’ beliefs on philanthropy.
The focus is to engage students to speak up on issues they are passionate about.
Another exercise is called “Opposite Pairs.” It teaches the students to basically agree to disagree and develop conversations about their likes and differences.
Another lesson called Four Corners is geared toward respecting one another.
When it came to sex education, health is the main focus and abstinence continues to be the primary lesson taught.
“Abstaining from all types of sexual activity has always been taught,” Guenther said. “There is no change. It’s been taught for years.”
But the teachings about why it is good to abstain, or why it is important to be protected are also emphasized.
Guenther told the audience that she looks at the revised curriculum not only as an administrator, but also as a parent.
Jean McGee, of Upper Township, has two sons in the district, Jesse, 14, a freshman, and a sophomore, Shane, who is 15.
She asked Guenther what would happen if she chose to opt out her sons from a lesson.
“I am curious how it would look to opt out?” she asked.
She added, “I would hate for my children to be singled out.”
Guenther told her that students will not be penalized for opting out of the specific lessons and that the parents just need to opt out their children.
All of the curriculum can be found under Academics at oceancityschools.org. Guenther urged parents to contact her with any issues or questions. She added that parents can also receive copies of her presentation and that they should contact her directly.
One student voiced her concern over the Sept. 8 rally in which parents and others in the community and others spoke against the new guidelines, specifically on how to teach gender identity.
“Will the school address the rally held on Sept. 8?” asked Keely Calloway, 17, of Ocean City, who is a senior at the school.
Keely, a senior who is a Student Council member on the executive board, noted that a lot of students are talking about the issue.
“A lot of LGBTQ students have been facing backlash,” she said.
Guenther emphasized to Keely that the students, if they feel they are mistreated need to tell someone, and if nothing gets done, they need to tell someone else.
Keely was among nearly 4,000 people who signed a petition on Change.org. The petition, under “OC Alumni,” had 3,850 signatures with the goal of 5,000 as of Tuesday night.
The petition maintained that the protesters in Mark Soifer Park Sept. 8 sent a message that “LGBTQ students in Ocean City aren’t welcome.”
The petition said, “According to them, any mention of LGBTQ people’s existence in schools is “indoctrination”, “sexualization.” And, “Bluntly, they believe gay & trans people, students should be shunned from our schools and Ocean City itself. Enough. As a community, Ocean City must come together and unequivocally declare QUEER KIDS BELONG HERE,” the message says.
Keely also added that she did not think parents should be able to opt out their children from the gender identity curriculum.
