No means no: Logandale parents galvanize opposition to comprehensive sex ed in CCSD

By Ian Whitaker

Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015 | 2 a.m.

LOGANDALE -- Be laser-focused. Don’t bring up religion. Defend parental rights.

That was the message at a community meeting Tuesday night in Logandale, which drew a few dozen local residents to the town’s old school building to discuss strategy going into a public hearing next week on the Clark County School District's current sex education curriculum.

Parents here have been the most vocal faction against a movement to institute comprehensive sex education in the district, though it was another issue entirely that dominated much of the discussion.

"If we lose opt-in, we lose everything,” said Deborah Earl, a board member of Power2Parent, the parent group that has been organizing these meetings since it was formed in the wake of last year’s controversy involving the school board and an ill-conceived private meeting with sex ed reformers.

Nevada is an opt-in state, which means parents must be notified of sex ed classes and that students can't attend unless a parent signs a permission slip.

Comprehensive sex ed advocates have criticized the state's opt-in law as nonsensical given that most parents approve of sex ed and because students could lose out on life-saving medical information if their slip isn’t signed. They argue that students should automatically receive sex ed unless a parent says otherwise.

That’s a no-go for many of the families that gathered here, who feel it would be a violation of their parental rights.

"This is the hill I'm ready to die on,” said Earl, speaking through a microphone plugged into a guitar amplifier perched on the edge of an old stage. “This isn't good for my kids."

Parents in this community, a firmly conservative farming town an hour north of Las Vegas, expressed fear about an “underlying agenda,” and bristled at the mention of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and Planned Parenthood, whose members and supporters have been vocal about changing the curriculum.

The families are afraid the outside pressure will cause the school district to petition the state Legislature to change the law.

That’s unlikely, as a school district survey conducted late last year found that a majority of respondents were in support of the opt-in policy and a full 80 percent supported parents’ rights to decide whether their kids attend sex ed classes.

Missing in the discussion on Tuesday night was the content of the district’s sex ed curriculum itself. Current district students have criticized sex ed classes for excluding information about subjects like gay and transgender issues and skimming over important subjects like birth control and STDs.

Recently, the ACLU of Nevada combed through CCSD’s sex ed class materials and found that a number of approved textbooks and videos contained factually inaccurate information, though the district maintains the materials are no longer in use.

But the view of the parents here is that the current sex ed curriculum works and shouldn’t be changed. Most don’t support the inclusion of information about homosexuality, gender identity or gender stereotypes in sex ed classes, and don’t think they should cover anything not included in Nevada law, last updated nearly 30 years ago.

The public hearing Tuesday, which will take place in the Las Vegas Academy auditorium to accommodate what's expected to be a large turnout, will be the next flashpoint in a yearlong debate over whether sex ed curriculum needs updating. Both factions — concerned parents on one side and students and sex ed advocates on the other — are expected to come out in full force.

Parents here were at least partially concerned about messaging, warning each other not to mention religion — many in the community are Mormon — for fear that it would discredit their cause.

"Don't bring religion into it,” said one woman. “There are parents throughout Nevada that have diverse religions."

Earl, a Summerlin resident with four kids in the district, urged parents to stay on topic.

"We need to be laser focused and bring out what we can win on,” she said.