One controversial sex-ed program was dropped by a county council in England after parents and Christian activists protested against its sexually explicit content.
According Birmingham Live, parents said that Warwickshire County Council offered content to children “encouraging masturbation,” contained an unhealthy view of porn, and promoting "experimental transgender ideas in schools."
One anonymous mother from Leamington Spa told Birmingham Live that she was “horrified” when she saw the online content after the council's plans were made public on a website called Respect Yourself.
"At first I thought it looked fine. Then I started to read it and some of it is really quite disturbing," she said. "I thought 'is this what the council is telling my kids, that porn is fine and there's no such thing as porn addiction?"
Additionally, The Christian Institute said the program materials "made no reference to marriage, contrary to national requirements."
Children would also be taught on multiple genders and encouraged schools to allow students to enter bathrooms designated for the opposite sex.
"It also encouraged schools not to inform parents if their children would be sharing overnight accommodation with pupils of the opposite sex while on residential trips, and to conceal a child’s transgender status from their own parents — contrary to parental rights protected under the Human Rights Act 1998," The Christian Institute added.
The program was ultimately dropped after hundreds of people signed a petition urging for the Respect Yourself website to remove from the internet.
Then the council did decide to remove the site, awaiting results of an independent review.
Parents also contacted The Christian Institute as it warned the council of potential legal action if the “catalogue of errors” were failed to be addressed.
Prior to dropping the program, the council defended it, claiming that it would help children cultivate "healthy relationships and to enable them to build positive and safe relationships as they grow and develop into adults,” Birmingham Live added.
Council documents indicate that the program will be replaced with an “information and signposting offer to schools.” The replacement curriculum will follow the Department for Education’s new national materials and resources on sex education, which are still being developed.
“Warwickshire’s climbdown will come as welcome news to hundreds of concerned parents. The highly explicit imagery and one-sided ideology of All About Me has no place in Primary Relationships Education," said The Christian Institute's education officer John Denning, in response to the move.
“Schools are obviously facing a challenging time at the moment. But as soon as they can, they must consult with parents on a different approach to teaching RSE which complies with the law."
He added, “As with other teachings in state schools, it must be balanced, objective and critical, not pushing particular controversial views such as transgender ideology.”
The topic of “comprehensive sex-education” has many parents concerned as they do not want their children introduced and exposed to graphic imagery and transgender ideology.
Especially the notion that sex exists on a spectrum and is non-binary, the self-selection that children can have with gender apart from their actual biological sex, and that some people might be born in the wrong body.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Dolgachov
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
