I support the amendment. It should be obvious that schools ought not to expose children to sexually explicit material without first alerting the parents and giving them the opportunity to opt their children out of the material.

In response to the claim that parents already should know from the curriculum what books are going to be read, that is an unrealistic assumption. Parents are busy in many ways, and the schools should not be giving them the extra "parental homework" assignment of reading every book the children will read. Moreover, some parents will have language barriers that prevent them from properly assessing a work in English.

This is a chance for the board -- and the schools -- to demonstrate that they are genuinely interested in collaborating with parents.