Sexual education in Massachusetts schools: State sends proposed framework to public comment

Education officials may be in for mixed public reception regarding a proposed revision to the state’s health and physical education framework, which hasn’t been updated in 25 years.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted Tuesday to release the framework, proposed by the Healey administration last week, for a 60-day public comment period. Members will decide in the fall whether to adopt the guidelines.

Local school officials ultimately have the final say on how to implement the broad learning objectives outlined in the framework. Gov. Maura Healey is touting the guidelines as inclusive of “gay, queer, and trans students’ identities and needs.”

Supporters argue the new framework is “grounded in science” and offers “medically accurate, age-appropriate” material, while opponents say the lessons are better suited to be taught outside the classroom.

Such a curriculum could lead to decreased bullying and harassment, more classmates sticking up for peers who are being harmed, and improved academic performance, said Jaclyn Friedman, founder and executive director of EducateUS, a partner of national nonprofit Sex Ed for Social Change.

“You may hear today from a small but vocal minority in Massachusetts that thinks if they erase certain kinds of information in the curriculum … that the students who need that information in real life will also similarly disappear,” Friedman said. “But this approach has been failing and even actively harming the students of Massachusetts for far too long.”

Michael King, director of community alliances at the Massachusetts Family Institute, urged the state Education Board not to put the framework out to public comment. He fears the curriculum could influence students to identify as transgender and pursue related treatments and surgeries.

State law allows parents to opt their children out of lessons related to sex education, which the Healey administration said is “a small portion of the knowledge covered” in the proposed framework.

In Worcester, more than 3,700 students have withdrawn from lessons on sexual education, according to recent reports.

“Is it medically accurate to tell students that they can change their gender?” King asked. “If this framework is implemented, it will only increase the growing opt-out of sex ed movement … and the mass exodus of families from Massachusetts public schools.”

State education officials say students’ school experiences have changed drastically over the past 25 years — the curriculum was last revised in 1999 — with the rise of the internet, handheld mobile devices, and video games.

But that is particularly concerning to Katie Aubin, a member of the Dighton-Rehoboth School Committee who spoke to the board on her personal behalf.

Aubin called out the framework for grades 3–5 for recommending students to learn how to “use valid, reliable, and medically accurate resources to find descriptions of the human reproductive systems, human sexual development, and the effects of hormones (e.g., romantic and sexual feelings, mood swings).”

“Kids are going to use platforms like Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat to look up these things,” Aubin said. “None of those things are safe. There are groomers on there.”