Officials tweak CCSD sex ed curriculum but avoid controversial changes

By Ian Whitaker

Thursday, May 26, 2016 | 8:20 p.m.

After months of public back and forth, the Clark County School District finally took the first concrete step in updating its controversial sex education curriculum.

School board members voted Thursday night to add a number of classroom materials to health classes around the district, including updated information for middle and high schoolers about sexual assault, sexually transmitted diseases and how to obtain contraception.

The vote comes half a year after board members instructed district staff to come up with updated classroom materials for review and approval. A number of CCSD students and local members of Planned Parenthood had called into question the accuracy of the district’s classroom materials.

“This has to start someplace, and we have to continue to review the materials,” said school board President Linda Young.

Still left to be determined is whether the district will choose to include information designed for and about gay and transgender students. The district’s sex ed classes currently don’t cover the topics, leaving the students to find the information themselves.

"We still have to fight for an inclusive LGBT sex ed curriculum for our youth,” said Joe Rajchel, policy coordinator at the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. “If we’re not going out there and talking to all our students, we're failing them."

A district spokeswoman said administrators were still looking at LGBT-inclusive curriculum currently in use in other states.

“We are working on those policies,” Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky said.

Trustees also passed a string of largely minor revisions to its sex education operational guide. However, much to the chagrin of some, they didn’t include language acknowledging gay and transgender students.

“It’s completely lacking,” said Amy Rose, legal director of the Nevada ACLU. “Without the corresponding language change in the operation guide, these topics will not be taught.”

Sex ed is currently taught at three points during a student’s time in Clark County schools, in fifth grade, eighth grade and in high school.

A vocal contingent of parents, many of them residents of Moapa Valley, showed up to reaffirm their belief that the school district was sidestepping parents by teaching sensitive health topics in schools.

“The appropriate institution for learning about sex is in the home,” said Renae Haldeman, a Las Vegas parent of three district students.

Despite the changes, CCSD’s sex ed curriculum remains abstinence-based. Further revisions to the curriculum will likely come at a meeting sometime this summer.