New Jersey is working overtime to implement a new law requiring public schools to educate students on LGBT history. The system will be implemented in fall 2020. Twelve schools already launched the initiative by teaching LGBT history in a pilot program and in a few localities.
NorthJersey.com reported the pilot sites will include schools in Hackensack, Morristown, Newark and Asbury Park. They “are intended to be proving grounds for new lessons in history, economics and even grammar designed to improve awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender contributions and issues.” The instruction, approved by the state last year, will be a requirement for all of New Jersey’s public schools starting in the fall.” School boards need to update accordingly for the 2020-21 school year.
Middle and high school students will learn about the social, political and economic contributions of LGBTQ individuals. Supporters say the move reflects an inclusive history. “We want students to see themselves in the stories that are told,” Ashley Chiappano, safe schools and community education manager for Garden State Equality, told NorthJersey.com. “We want to make sure they are getting accurate, appropriate and historically relevant information about the community and the strides that have been made.”
Proponents of the law, like the Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey, launched a petition urging the legislature to permit parents to opt their children out of the curriculum.
They released a fact list for parents of what the new law would necessitate and mean.
Facts About New Jersey’s LGBT Curriculum Mandate:
-This law violates the fundamental and constitutional rights of parents to direct the moral and educational upbringing of their children.
-It was written with no opt-out protection nor protections for families who have religious and moral objections to the content.
-This law forces radical sexual ideology and it’s indoctrination into the minds and hearts of our children – again, without parental recourse.
-This law encourages revisionist history and teaches children that they’re no more than the sum of their sexual desires and feelings.
“Parents should know that the scope of these changes affects every subject in school, and it takes away their right to opt their children out of the questionable instruction,” Shaen Hyland, Advocacy Director of the Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey, wrote. “In many ways, this instruction will directly challenge Biblical teaching on homosexuality and what parents choose to teach children at home.”
California is the first state to adopt the LGBT rights agenda formally into its public schools in 2016. The new history and social studies curriculum will reach children as young as the second grade. “This is a big win for our students,” said California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson in a statement.
| Written by Corine Gatti-Santillo |