Virginia’s Loudoun County School Board is set to vote on a new policy regarding the notification of parents before sexually-explicit materials will be used in classrooms.
The proposed policy, which is expected to be voted upon Tuesday, would require parents and guardians be notified 30 days before materials with explicit content are to be used in classroom instruction. The policy does not affect books that students can access in school libraries.
According to the draft policy, the intent of the policy refers to lewd exhibitions of nudity and sex.
“Nothing in this policy requires or permits for the censoring of books in its 18 schools or the designation of instructional material as sexually explicit based solely upon the sexual orientation or gender identity of the characters contained therein,” the proposed policy says.
The agenda item includes comments from parents who believe there’s no reason sexually-explicit materials should be available in schools, at all.
For parents who would like to opt-out their child, the policy, “informs parents of their right to review such instructional materials, and informs parents of their right to have their child use, in a non-punitive manner, alternative, instructional materials that do not include sexually explicit content.”
All school boards in Virginia are required to adopt a policy that aligns with state guidelines by Jan. 1, as part of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s efforts to increase parental oversight into local school curricula.
