I oppose this bill on the grounds that it presents a solution to a non-existent problem in the Virginia School System. All of my children attended and graduated from Virginia Public schools. In that time, the concept of sexuality as described in the referenced paragraphs in this bill, never came up.  My children were never exposed to or taught about bestiality, lewd exhibition of nudity, sexual excitement, sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse.  This bill’s underlying premise implies and cements the lie that these things were ever taught in our public school system in order to provide a solution that, despite its claim that it isn’t intended to ban books – will result in the banning of books. It also has the potential for doubling or tripling teacher’s workloads as some parents decide what alternative books their children will read.

Absent from this bill is who reviews and approves the Virginia Department of Education materials to ensure they don’t contain material that may be offensive to parents of different cultural background and religious beliefs. Will parents be given a say in those materials before taxpayer dollars are spent or will they be published resulting in a perpetual review and cost to taxpayers to correct them?

These are all questions that should’ve been answered prior to passing this bill. It should be scrapped.