In April, the Miami-Dade, Florida, school board approved a comprehensive sex education textbook for the 2022-23 school year. But after several board members said they have since received complaints, the School Board of Miami-Dade reversed that decision Wednesday by a 5-4 vote.
Objections were made about the textbook’s accuracy, age-appropriateness and whether the text violates the state’s parental rights law, board members said.
A total of 278 formal petitions were submitted on the issue, according to the Miami Tribune.
Of the 40 citizens who signed up to speak during the meeting, 38 were advocates of the new comprehensive sex education textbook. Several implored the board to keep the curriculum as planned.
Maxx Fenning, president of PRISM Florida, a nonprofit with the stated aim to make education and sexual health resources more inclusive, said that 15- to 24-year-olds make up 25% of new HIV infections in the United States each year. He said comprehensive sex education would teach this age group to better protect themselves “if and when they decide to be sexually active.”
Others disagreed. Alex Serrano, the county director for County Citizens Defending Freedom, commented on the issue to the Miami Tribune after the meeting.
“We are not against sexual education or human reproduction and sexual education books,” Serrano said. “We are for statutory compliance and age appropriateness in the content ... and compliance with parental rights law.”
Miami Tribune reported the district may go between four and eight months without health-related and state-required material as a new curriculum is made.