Dexter Community Schools Looking to Modify Parts of Sex Ed Curriculum

The Dexter Community Schools Board of Education has asked the Sex Ed Advisory Board (SEAB) to go back and modify parts of the updated Sex Education Curriculum.

The DCS school board met on Nov. 17 and updated the process moving forward with the SEAB. The Sun Times News (STN) followed up with school board president Elise Bruderly, who said the board approved the special meeting minutes from the Nov. 10^th meeting, which included the list of approved sex ed. curriculum content as well as the list of requested modifications and revisions that the Board is sending back to the SEAB.

All of the approved content is considered final and will not return for further school board action, but the requested modifications will come back to the board.

Next Steps

Bruderly said school board feedback will now return to the SEAB for further work. At the Nov. 17 board meeting, Bruderly said a motion was made to authorize the Board President to put together an Ad Hoc committee who would be available to the SEAB to offer clarification on the board’s requested modifications.

“The Ad Hoc committee will be point people for the Board to ensure the next draft presented for public review aligns with the Board’s direction,” Bruderly said. “The process for the revised proposal will be the same as it was for the first draft. The community will be notified of review session and public comment dates prior to any Board action taken on the revisions. We expect this process to take a number of months.”

STN asked Bruderly about the topic broadly and what the community should know about this process.

She said evaluating and updating “our fifteen-year-old curriculum was an enormous task for the SEAB.”

“They had to synthesize a great deal of information, including current curriculum, survey data from adults and students, as well as local health survey data,” Bruderly said. “They also needed to identify which lessons from multiple curricular resources would best meet the needs of Dexter’s students. Finally, they had to structure the entire sex ed. curriculum across the 4th-12th grades, including meeting legal requirements like presenting HIV/AIDS information at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.”

She said the “SEAB’s efforts allowed the community and Board to have great conversations about the content and emphasis of lessons in the proposal.”

“For example, the community was extremely supportive of the media literacy lessons, recognizing how much content kids are finding on their phones,” Bruderly said. “Based on community, staff, and administrator feedback, the Board requested that the SEAB add parent resources targeting childhood phone protections and social media use and protection at the 5th grade level. This is exactly the way the SEAB-community-Board process is designed to work.”

She said the update of a sex ed. curriculum, especially a major district-wide update like Dexter has undertaken is a significant undertaking.

“The Board and the district take our charge seriously and are proud of the work that has been done by so many to get us to this point,” Bruderly said. “The Board thanks everyone who has been involved in this process and we look forward to continuing to work with the SEAB and community to complete this very important curriculum update.”

Modifications Needed

Here is the detailed modifications section from the approved minutes for Nov. 10. Note: Lessons that are bolded are approved with minor modifications; these will not need SEAB review or revision.

● ***Fourth Grade, Day 5: present in single-sex groups rather than co-ed.***

All Fifth Grade lessons: remove “assigned at birth” references in slides and neutralize language to match language in 7th-12th grade lessons; consider adding parent resources for childhood phone protections and social media use/protection.

● Fifth Grade, Day 2: rework and simplify with focus on respect; move topic to end of grade; disconnect from biology/anatomy; keep LGBTQ definitions as part of lesson but not focus; find all new resources.

● Fifth Grade Day 3 and Day 4: “neutralize” language throughout—use terms “male anatomy” or “female anatomy” to describe slides.

● Fifth Grade Day 5, Day 6: neutralize language on “Puberty Pointers for Everyone” and “Personal Hygiene and Healthy Habits” slide decks.

● Fifth Grade, Day 9: add foundational information slide deck before the video lessons; remove the CD4 Count HIV graph as separate resource (can be used as part of informational slide deck if SEAB prefers– currently has no context); consider adding more recent resources for “Fact Vs. Myth” (resource is dated 2006).

All Sixth Grade lessons: make language consistent with grades 7th-12th lessons, i.e., male/female anatomy.

● Sixth Grade Day 1: “Growing Together” slides only back to SEAB to neutralize language.

● Sixth Grade Day 2: neutralize language in “How My Body Works” slides; remove “Puberty and You” video.

● ***Sixth Grade, Day 3: remove slides 18 & 19 (intersectionality) and add to Sixth Grade, Day 10; move Vision Board Project to Day 10.***

● Sixth Grade, Day 5: rework: topic and objectives are good; need better resources; Note for SEAB: consider Answer Key p. 7 from Grade 6 Day 5 as guidance for revising 5th and 6th grade Gender Identity revisions; remove reference to money/porn at the end of the Answer Key if this material is used.

● Sixth Grade, Day 6: rework: remove emotional content/take a more concrete and medical approach; cover what sex is, how parts function, how pregnancy happens; explain what STIs are and how to prevent them; keep in oral, anal, etc. sex so that students can protect themselves from exploitation.

●Sixth Grade Day 7: rework: emphasize the seriousness of STIs with more medical, candid information. Provide accurate information about STIs so students will understand what happens if you contract an STI so they will take them very seriously.

● ***Sixth Grade, Day 10: approved with addition of slides 18 & 19 from Day 3; move Vision Board Project from Day 3 here.***

Seventh Grade: Bring more Parent Partnership Resources for all 7th grade topics.

● ***Seventh Grade, Day 2: terminology should consistently be male/female for anatomical sex and men/women for gender.***

● Seventh Grade, Day 4: rework; consider moving to the end of the program; topic and objectives are ok but resources aren’t great (HS resources on this topic are better); add an introductory lesson; replace all resources and videos except LGBTQ matching activity.

● ***Seventh Day, Grade 5: remove “PEP & PReP” video.***

● Seventh Grade, Day 6: rework: “What is HPV” and “Healthy or Not” resources are good; review STI lessons across grades 5-12 in sequence for developmental appropriateness, consistency, and seriousness.

● Seventh Grade, Day 7: rework: check for covering stated lesson objective of how to know if you are pregnant; check resource language consistency for anatomical male/female language vs man/woman gendered language.

● Seventh Grade, Day 9: rework contraception lesson; more foundational knowledge needed; remove “OPill” video; boundaries lesson is good as is.

● Seventh Grade, Day 15: add info or lesson on contacting a doctor and using health care portals.

High School in General: add family resources

● ***High School Days 7 through 9: consider these as part of overall STI review in case adjustments are needed.***

● High School Day 8: add appropriate pictures of STI diseases.

● High School Day 15: SEAB to consider adding different or additional resources (video is the same as 7th grade lesson).

To see the minutes in whole, go to https://www.dexterschools.org/district/board-of-education/meetings and look under meeting packets for Nov. 17. To learn more about the sex ed. curriculum go to: https://www.dexterschools.org/departments/curriculum/seab