At the school board meeting on December 6th, people came out to speak on three topics:
Part 1 Approve the sex-ed supplemental material
Part 2 Approval process for the Essential Voices books
Part 3 Restore JASMYN's contract or at least quit slandering their good reputation with the disinformation promulgated by a right wing anti-gay blogger
Here's a few videos of some of the people who came to speak up--each person was given one minute: https://youtu.be/jdZrOo8Pnw0
https://youtu.be/a70Pyn39ZYU Cindy Watson, the CEO of JASMYN is in this last video.
Part 3
Are M4L and DeSantis fueling this? Excerpts from this article:
Florida is coming off a legislative session where the hottest topic for GOP legislators wasn’t fixing Florida’s in-crisis insurance market or strengthening public education. It was demonizing gay people. Nantz noted that demonization and division act as a tool for politicians to distract citizens from the politicians’ own failures.
Here's more about JASMYN and Dr. Greene's mistake: https://folioweekly.com/2022/12/21/unforced-error/
Part 2
This Jerusalem Post article mentions how the book banning movement is affecting the Duval school district: https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/article-725105
Part 1
At the very end of this video clip is a woman who says she has reviewed the supplemental material which is being voted on. She makes an odd statement that abstinence is barely mentioned in the supplemental material. She is spreading misinformation. Abstinence is mentioned in the textbooks that were approved at the August 2 school board meeting with a vote of 7-0. This supplemental material is in addition to those textbooks.
Excerpt from this article :
What’s still up for debate are the district’s “supplemental materials” — those lessons that go beyond the health textbooks.
The actual comprehensive sex-ed class is developed by experts in the field
They develop the class activity from material pulled from the textbooks and the supplemental materials
Abstinence was emphasized in the textbooks and will be emphasized in the classes
The board approved the textbooks 7-0 in the August 2nd Board Meeting
The board approved the supplemental material 5-2 in the December 6th meeting
____________________________ Here’s the minutes of the meeting when the textbooks were approved on August 2:
Here's a good article about sex-ed: https://www.advocatesforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/storage/advfy/documents/cse-myths-and-facts.pdf
Discussion about DCPS sex-ed in this podcast episode begins at minute 32. Raymon Troncoso of WJCT News said "the city supports JASMYN" even though Dr. Greene canceled their contract with DCPS.
Here's a clip of the December 6th school board meeting with the school board discussing the supplemental material: https://youtu.be/EayI_tE3HGw
Please listen and let me know if this is also your interpretation:
Joyce and Carney are voting no on the supplemental material because they don't want trans kids mentioned in the class. I find that sad. I offer this article to refute what they said about the number of people detransitioning. The complete article can be found on PolitiFact. A few excerpts:
Researchers from Princeton University’s TransYouth Project followed up with participants in person and online. At the end of the five years, 94% of participants still identified as transgender.
This article discusses that 6% who detransition and the reasons. We need to be supportive of them also.
I speculated that transphobia motivated Joyce and Carney, but was it also anti-feminism? Do they want a stereotyped version of what it means to be a girl? When Joyce and Carney use the term gender identity, what do they mean? Here is the LINK to the health education page on the DCPS website. This is part of the supplemental material for girls:
Let’s start with a few definitions:
Biological sex: Your biological sex is based on the genitals you’re born with and the chromosomes you have. At birth, most people are either male or female.
Gender identity: This is about how you feel and how you think about yourself when it comes to gender. Everyone’s gender identity is unique to them and should be respected.
Gender roles and stereotyping: These are socially constructed – they relate to characteristics and behaviors that are typically thought to go alongside a person’s biological sex. They can often stereotype girls & boys. You might have started to notice that people expect you to look, act or behave in a certain way just because you’re a girl. We call this stereotyping. Don’t let society limit you! Your biological sex shouldn’t define what you can or can’t do – and stereotyping someone because of their gender, or thinking that someone is better or worse because of their gender, can be very harmful. Remember – you don’t have to let these norms limit you. Girls can be strong, play the sports they want and speak up. Stay strong and believe that you can achieve anything! You’re great, just the way you are We are all different and that’s what makes us beautiful. Imagine if we all looked the same – how boring would that be? If someone teases you about how you look, try and ignore it. There is no right or wrong way to look. Instead, try and focus on staying healthy & happy, be proud of your uniqueness and be supportive of those around you.
Carney and Joyce said they voted no on the supplemental material because of “gender ideology”. Are they anti-trans kids or anti-feminism or both?
Let me know if you disagree with my assessment of the school board meeting.
Susan Aertker
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