IUSD adopts ?Teen Talk? as new sex ed curriculum

Mandy

New member
Has anyone heard of the new sex ed curriculum adopted by IUSD, ?Teen Talk?? All IUSD middle school students must take this progressive sex Ed over 12 sessions now (with Opt-Out option?) Some conservative groups are participating ?Sit-Out? campaign to oppose this new curriculum tomorrow.  I wonder if any of Irvine parents were involved in this decision-making process, when some districts like Sacramento and Cupertino districts voted off adopting Teen Talk due to the outcry from the parents. Even neighboring Capistrano Disctrict decided not to use Teen Talk.  I didn?t know about it till couple days ago and most of the parents of middle schoolers I know are pretty upset by the topics to be covered and some graphic contents. Apparently this HAC (Health Advisory Committee) determines what the Irvine kids will learn at sex/family life ed and just approved this ?sensitive materials.? 
https://www.health-connected.org/teen-talk-middle-school
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/740372_d4dba23fe6cb4e3fbe77d02304e1c8b9.pdf
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/740372_ceb8347ae995442a810c37e252812fb8.pdf
https://iusd.org/sites/default/files/public_agenda_jan_16_2019.pdf

 
I'm not a parent but this program looks great. If you just look at the table of contents for what is covered, wow that's important stuff for kids to talk about and learn. Abstinence, STIs, body image and the media, communication, relationships, sexual violence prevention. That is all stuff I would want my kid to learn and be able to discuss before entering high school. Maybe I'm more progressive than most but I know as teens we encountered all of those things at my high school, I would want my kid to be prepared.

And I don't really buy that parents could cover all of these topics at home to the same effect a school program could. I still don't know how I feel about body image and the media, and I think it's really important for kids to have conversations with peers about these things so they know everyone else is also scared/confused/etc.
 
Mandy said:
Has anyone heard of the new sex ed curriculum adopted by IUSD, ?Teen Talk?? All IUSD middle school students must take this progressive sex Ed over 12 sessions now (with Opt-Out option?) Some conservative groups are participating ?Sit-Out? campaign to oppose this new curriculum tomorrow.  I wonder if any of Irvine parents were involved in this decision-making process, when some districts like Sacramento and Cupertino districts voted off adopting Teen Talk due to the outcry from the parents. Even neighboring Capistrano Disctrict decided not to use Teen Talk.  I didn?t know about it till couple days ago and most of the parents of middle schoolers I know are pretty upset by the topics to be covered and some graphic contents. Apparently this HAC (Health Advisory Committee) determines what the Irvine kids will learn at sex/family life ed and just approved this ?sensitive materials.? 
https://www.health-connected.org/teen-talk-middle-school
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/740372_d4dba23fe6cb4e3fbe77d02304e1c8b9.pdf
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/740372_ceb8347ae995442a810c37e252812fb8.pdf
https://iusd.org/sites/default/files/public_agenda_jan_16_2019.pdf

Forgive me if I'm missing anything, but what is so "sensitive" or "dangerous" about it? Is it like the middle school students take some sex education classes before they go to high school?

I think my Health class covered something similar when I was in 10th grade or something which was many many years ago. I guess it could depend on how the teacher presents it, but it covered how men and women are different and how babies are conceived and also how there are many risks of having STD with especially having early sexual relations. My teacher at the end suggested it's best not to have sex while still in school and it felt like a healthy educational program. Of course students had Q&A session as well.

Please let us know what you think there are more risks involved with this type of education, but I think having an openly discussed class like this might be actually more safe while they might already have knowledge and access to these materials in secret anyways? Again, please forgive me if I'm missing anything and let us know.

 
Yes, this will be done to your 7th graders, not just high schoolers in Irvine starting next month. I support CA Healthy Youth Act wholeheartedly and absolutely welcome the change to include LGBTQ in the school sex ed. My purpose of the starting this conversation was by no means to oppose the new laws. So please dont try to obscure the point. I am bothered with this controvercial curriculum, ?Teen Talk? introducing ever-confusing ?Genderbread (google it up if you dont know what it is),? anal/oral/group sex and how to masturbate with veggies/use sex toys and so on at middle school, not just in high school.  Correct me if I?m wrong. Thanks to the new CA Healthy Youth Act that passed in 2015, we as parents all have the right to request the school to provide us with all the materials before being taught to our kids. So I wonder if any middle school parents out there tried to review these materials and what they think of what they reviewed. If you haven?t, I strongly urge you to do so and make informed decisions. You can opt out as far as I know. But there are so many good topics you don?t want your kids to miss either. But you cannot partly opt out. You?re either in or out. Sadly not many parents feel equipped to address these topics listed in the curriculum. But this is Irvine. full of enough intelligient, sufficiently educated and very knowledgeable parents. Not enough test has been done to prove scientific/medical correctness of the contents of the curriculum and effectivenss of this Teen Talk per se and why are in a hurry to use this untested scientifically unproven expensive curriculum on our kids? Is this another example of squandering the blind money by a small group of decision makers who don?t even live in Irvine nor do their kids go to public schools in Irvine? What other options, alternatives, curriculums have we all considered? Or has anyone from the district asked any parent? Who sits on Health Advisory Committee? Who OK?ed them to send the 12 staff to get Teen Talk certified? Why didn?t anyone think of developing our own customized curriculum to meet unique needs of our children in the district? (no offense to others, but please leave the room for further discussion for current parents).
 
Mandy said:
Yes, this will be done to your 7th graders, not just high schoolers in Irvine starting next month. I support CA Healthy Youth Act wholeheartedly and absolutely welcome the change to include LGBTQ in the school sex ed. My purpose of the starting this conversation was by no means to oppose the new laws. So please dont try to obscure the point. I am bothered with this controvercial curriculum, ?Teen Talk? introducing ever-confusing ?Genderbread (google it up if you dont know what it is),? anal/oral/group sex and how to masturbate with veggies/use sex toys and so on at middle school, not just in high school.  Correct me if I?m wrong. Thanks to the new CA Healthy Youth Act that passed in 2015, we as parents all have the right to request the school to provide us with all the materials before being taught to our kids. So I wonder if any middle school parents out there tried to review these materials and what they think of what they reviewed. If you haven?t, I strongly urge you to do so and make informed decisions. You can opt out as far as I know. But there are so many good topics you don?t want your kids to miss either. But you cannot partly opt out. You?re either in or out. Sadly not many parents feel equipped to address these topics listed in the curriculum. But this is Irvine. full of enough intelligient, sufficiently educated and very knowledgeable parents. Not enough test has been done to prove scientific/medical correctness of the contents of the curriculum and effectivenss of this Teen Talk per se and why are in a hurry to use this untested scientifically unproven expensive curriculum on our kids? Is this another example of squandering the blind money by a small group of decision makers who don?t even live in Irvine nor do their kids go to public schools in Irvine? What other options, alternatives, curriculums have we all considered? Or has anyone from the district asked any parent? Who sits on Health Advisory Committee? Who OK?ed them to send the 12 staff to get Teen Talk certified? Why didn?t anyone think of developing our own customized curriculum to meet unique needs of our children in the district? (no offense to others, but please leave the room for further discussion for current parents).

You seem to know more about it than anyone. I didn't know it would teach all kinds of orgies to 7th graders. Then yeah, I would would have voted against it. I personally don't fully support some new laws unlike you so yeah let's not get there here. I thought Teen Talk was just a healthy sexual education to teens, but if it is so as you say, then I would choose opt-out for my kids.

 
Objective evidences such as below are there for you to ignore and get upset and mortified after a fact. So exercise your right and ask your middle school to show you every single slide, pictures, video clips and materials to be shown to your 7th graders before it?s too late. Another thing I found out new is while you can opt out the STI/HIV part, you cannot opt out gender identity and sexual orientation/expressions by law. Our utmost priority is to keep out this Teen Talk and come up with our own curriculum to better suit our district.

1) First one is the evidence of IUSD getting this mysterious Health Advisory Committee together and approving ?sensitive materials? just last month. Attend the next board meeting scheduled for Wed 3/13 at 11:30am-1pm to ask further questions and voice your opinions.

2) The next is the evidence that you cannot opt out gender identity, sexua orientation and expression part by law. Most middle school parents have been notified of the Parent Info Meeting supposedly to show them what they will show the kids. So please go and voice your opinion.

3) ?Teen Talk? includes ?Genderbread? & ?Straightlaced? movie in 1 whole session (3rd session) out of its 12 sessions. If IUSD proceeds with Teen Talk, all middle and high school kids will be given scientifically unproven info on these issues.
 

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Can any adult make sense out of this? What about our 13 year old? Sure we do need to educate our kids to embrace and respect their peers regardless of their sexual orientation. But this scientifically unproven method of teaching the kids is just wrong in all dimentions.
 

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It will be interesting to see how much flexibility the school districts really have on this, as it was signed into law at the state level by Jerry Brown.  I think the wording of the law does leave some flexibility for school districts to decide their own curriculum, but that doesn't mean they will deviate much from the state guidance, and they may worry it will open them up to discrimination claims if they leave out the gay and transgender topics.

The curriculum isn't just mandated at the middle school level either.  It's for K-12th.  That means depending on the district, your kindergartner may start to be exposed to gay curriculum.  If that's your bag, fine.  But it doesn't seem fair to force everybody from traditional cultures to conform to this.
 
Are you trying to gin up hysteria on this forum hoping you can pressure schools ? Or just venting ?

If venting , fine . This forum is the right place , plenty of conservative sympathizers.

But if trying to influence school policy not sure how much success you will have here

There is always the option of private schools where you can find like minded parents.
 
Mandy said:
Objective evidences such as below are there for you to ignore and get upset and mortified after a fact. So exercise your right and ask your middle school to show you every single slide, pictures, video clips and materials to be shown to your 7th graders before it?s too late. Another thing I found out new is while you can opt out the STI/HIV part, you cannot opt out gender identity and sexual orientation/expressions by law. Our utmost priority is to keep out this Teen Talk and come up with our own curriculum to better suit our district.

1) First one is the evidence of IUSD getting this mysterious Health Advisory Committee together and approving ?sensitive materials? just last month. Attend the next board meeting scheduled for Wed 3/13 at 11:30am-1pm to ask further questions and voice your opinions.

2) The next is the evidence that you cannot opt out gender identity, sexua orientation and expression part by law. Most middle school parents have been notified of the Parent Info Meeting supposedly to show them what they will show the kids. So please go and voice your opinion.

3) ?Teen Talk? includes ?Genderbread? & ?Straightlaced? movie in 1 whole session (3rd session) out of its 12 sessions. If IUSD proceeds with Teen Talk, all middle and high school kids will be given scientifically unproven info on these issues.

Thanks for posting these for people who did not know about it as much including myself.

You previously posted that you welcome all those new laws incorporated to the Health education, but it seems like you do not want your child to attend the session where they will cover the gender identity, sexual orientation and expression part by law. I wouldn't either. But if the public schools are making these things mandatory, then that's the reality. Like you said, parents can attend meetings and voice their opinions and also as the letter (second image you posted) says parents are free to advice their children of which they don't agree with from these programs which I would also. I do not agree with the evolution, but that's been taught in a public school system a long time. Learning those did not make me believe, but I learned there is a battleground to stand my belief at. I didn't fight back with the teacher or anything. I just didn't believe in those while being taught. So that's something you can educate your children about beforehand maybe.

Parenting definitely isn't getting easier even with all these technology and more advanced developments in this world.

 
I requested access to the materials and reviewed all the videos, slides etc. and decided that the materials are not appropriate for my child. There were some modules that were appropriate but a lot of them were not. For example, in the ?Birth Control? section, there was a slide that explained what the ?withdrawal? method is and that it is 78-96% effective. Parents should review the materials and then decide for their children.
 
Mandy said:
anal/oral/group sex and how to masturbate with veggies/use sex toys and so on at middle school, not just in high school. 
Man am I late to this thread, but posting stuff like this just blows the credibility of the entire rant.  Don't see these in the topics listed. 

Sex ed at 11/12 was the norm when I was growing up.  Glad the courses have evolved now to cover many things that were unknown, ignored or misunderstood, hopefully in a factual, non-judgmental way.  I had never thought of it before, but I feel sorry for anyone who took classes back then and who felt like a marginalized deviant or freak of nature because they weren't hetero.  Actually, I do recall anal sex being addressed by the teacher in 1 sentence during class:  "It's a  one-way street". 
 
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