Students in the Miami-Dade County school district will not have a sex-ed curriculum after the school board voted to ax its current slate of sexual education textbooks.
The same textbooks that were approved months ago were not adopted by the school board.
The "Don't Say Gay" bill went into effect just weeks after the school board rejected these textbooks. The law does not state what "age-appropriate" or "developmentally appropriate" means when it comes to discussing sexual orientation in the classroom.
The district will no longer have a sex-ed curriculum for four to eight months because of the removal of the textbooks.
The material on contraceptive methods, gender identity, and how to report child abuse were found in the "Comprehensive Health Skills" textbooks.
The speakers at the school board meeting highlighted the books' discussion of gender and sexual orientation. The chapter was removed from the books for middle and high-schoolers after the board adopted the textbooks.
According to Steve Gallon III, the vice chair of the Miami-Dade school board, 38 out of the more than 40 people who spoke on Wednesday asked the board to keep the textbooks. The books were adopted by the board members.
A majority of the speakers spoke today. He said you do the math. There's a bigger opportunity to debunk the narrative that there's a broad opposition to the board's adoption of these materials.
Gina Vinueza, a mental health professional and a mother of two, spoke in favor of keeping the textbooks at the meeting.
She said that if the board doesn't approve the textbooks, they will take away the rights of everyone to public education that is based on facts and science.
The board member who voted to remove the textbooks from the curriculum said that some of the books' chapters were troublesome.
I don't think they're appropriate for young people. "I think they go beyond what the state standards are."
More than 334,000 students attend the Miami-Dade school district.
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