I grew up in the Virginia public school system, and credit my teachers with helping to turn me into a well-rounded individual with compassion for others and an appreciation of the diversity of human experience.

A broad application of this bill (by classifying "sexually explicit material" to include anything other than heterosexuality, strict binary gender identities, and so on) would do a grave disservice to Virginia students, by denying them a full understanding and appreciation of the wide range of normal human identities and experiences - including identities that are directly relevant to themselves and their families and friends.

This bill, if it must be enforced, should be construed only in the strictest way, and parents who object to presented material should be able to request alternate material only for their own children, and not have the ability to deny other students appropriate education designed by trained and expert educators.

Public education is for making good citizens. If parents truly object to their children having an appropriate public school education, they are free to homeschool their children or send them to a private school that they and not taxpayer dollars pay for.