What are the details?
Becky Swan, a District 87 parent and alum, passionately voiced her opposition to the sexualization of young children at a school board meeting last week, according to WRPW, a conservative radio station in central Illinois.
Swan’s statement came in response to a new bill, S.B. 0818, which mandates that schools teaching sex education in the state must comply with the National Sex Education Standards. The bill has passed both chambers of the Illinois legislature and now awaits signing by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
According to Swan, the bill is an “unfunded mandate that destroys local control over curriculum” and “sexually grooms young children by introducing sensitive and inappropriate topics.”
In a fiery speech during the board meeting, Swan assailed the bill for seizing educational authority from parents, introducing sexually explicit content to children, and indoctrinating them with the transgender ideology,
Reading a sampling from the NSES, she noted that students in kindergarten through second grade are expected to “list medically accurate names for body parts, including the genitals” and “define gender, gender identity, and gender-role stereotypes.”
Things then escalate quickly for children in grades 3-5, who are expected to “explain common human sexual development and the role of hormones (e.g., romantic and sexual feelings, masturbation, mood swings, timing of pubertal onset).”
Those children are also taught that “gender expression and gender identity exist along a spectrum” and are expected to “distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity” as well as be able to “describe the role hormones play in the physical, social, cognitive, and emotional changes during adolescence and the potential role of hormone blockers on young people who identify as transgender.”
By the time children reach grades 6-8, they are expected to be able to “define vaginal, oral, and anal sex” and are bombarded with information about the influence of substances in “sexual decision-making” and the nitty-gritty of sexually transmitted diseases.
What else?
But Swan wasn’t finished yet.
Before her time expired, she unloaded on the district superintendent, Barry Reilly, for attempting to cut her off and for dismissing her concerns during a previous meeting.
Holding up a book purportedly used as a part of sex education curricula in Illinois schools, Swan charged that if the content is too sensitive for discussion at a board meeting then it is surely too sensitive to be taught to young children.
The book, “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health,” has been the subject of controversy and outrage before. It includes illustrated depictions of naked teens and adults, sexual intercourse, different types of birth control, homosexuality, and masturbation.
Starting in 2014, the book, which is still widely used in public school sex education programs, was also frequently banned over its explicit content.
