Virginia’s Largest School District Considers Expanding Lessons on Pornography

The Fairfax County Public Schools administrative building where the Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee met in Fairfax County, Va., on Sept. 11, 2023. Masooma Haq/The Epoch Times

FAIRFAX, Va.—The Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee (FLECAC) recently had its first meeting to review goals for the 2023–2024 school year, which include expanding the pornography curriculum beyond ninth grade.

Currently, ninth grade students get lessons on how pornography affects relationships.

The course standards say the goal of this ninth grade curriculum is to have students identify factors that contribute to healthy relationships. By the end of the class, students should be able to define pornography and how it affects dating relationships. In addition, students are asked to identify the short- and long-term consequences of recording and distributing sexually explicit materials.

Carrie Reynolds, chair of the FLECAC, said one of the committee’s goals for the year will be to decide if expanding the pornography curriculum above and below ninth grade would benefit students, starting in middle school.

Parents can opt their child out of these sex education classes.

A meeting of the Fairfax County Public Schools Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee in Fairfax County, Va., on Sept. 11, 2023. Masooma Haq/The Epoch Times

Other Controversial Changes

Last year, the committee voted to make several controversial changes such as teaching sex education in a co-ed setting beginning in fourth grade instead of keeping the classes separate; changing all terms of “male” and “female” to “assigned male/female at birth”; and to “explore” adding gender identity curriculum in elementary school.

Among the proposed additions is an instructional video explaining that “in addition to girl parts and boy parts, there are also people who have different parts or intermediate parts or people who who don’t fit within a traditional binary gender system of male or female. There are people who are trans ... people who have ovaries and people who have testicles.”

This material is in line with the transgender activist handbook called Schools in Transition (pdf), which school boards have used to create their policies on gender theory and transitioning students without parental knowledge. It tells educators they possess “unique insight into the student’s needs without the biases parents can or are perceived to have” and that they may need to testify in court against parents to “highlight to the judge the importance of affirming the student’s gender identity.”

A member of the Fairfax County Public Schools Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee has a water bottle with a sticker that says "Keep Calm and Support LGBT" in Fairfax County, Va., on Sept. 11, 2023. Masooma Haq/The Epoch Times

The school board has not finalized last year’s changes because of opposition from the larger community. During a July FCPS school board meeting, the members heard the community’s response to the suggested 2022–2023 changes to the sex education curriculum.

The school board members reviewed the community’s reaction to the proposed changes and saw that most of the school community, 84 percent, were against these changes.

A few members questioned the validity of the survey, saying that there is no way to know if 84 percent of responses really came from FCPS community members. Superintendent Michelle Reid dismissed the overwhelming objection to these changes by saying “the majority doesn’t always dictate, right?” according to the Washington Examiner.

After FLECAC makes recommendations, the public is typically asked to weigh in on the changes and then the school board votes to finalize the changes. In the case of the 2022–2023 suggested changes to the sex education curriculum, the board’s vote was postponed for further review.

The Epoch Times reached out to the superintendent’s office for comment.

Other Virginia School Districts

Meanwhile, other school districts in Virginia have adopted a sex education curriculum that is endorsed by Planned Parenthood called “Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works,” which includes instruction on terminology such as “homosexuality,” “lesbianism,” “abortion,” and “masturbation.” Depending on grade level, it also covers topics such as gender and sexual identity, “low-risk” intimacy, and more.

Norfolk Public Schools adopted the “Get Real” curriculum earlier this year.

Janae Stracke, vice president of field operations for Heritage Action for America, detailed parts of “Get Real” that parents of middle school students might find objectionable in a thread on social media in May.

Although families can opt their child out of any sex education classes, many parents may not be aware of how the subject is being taught.

Among some of the most questionable aspects of the curriculum were role-playing sexual encounters and calling heterosexual attraction a “harmful” stereotype.

In addition, “A suggested resource guide advises educators to avoid disclosing information to parents regarding their child’s gender. It’s full of anti-parent language aimed at indoctrinating children to deny their sex,” wrote Ms. Stracke.

“A suggested form of birth control for 11–13 year olds is sterilization,” wrote Ms. Stracke.

While some parents did share their objection to the “Get Real” curriculum with the board members, many more did not, and the board voted to adopt the curriculum.