Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Education
 
Board
State Board of Education
 
Guidance Document Change: The guidance document "Model Policies Concerning Instructional Materials with Sexually Explicit Content" was developed in conjunction with stakeholders in order to comply with SB656 (2022).
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7/16/22  5:19 pm
Commenter: Richard Vogel

Protections for Parents of LGTB Students
 

To make this clear, I am not opposed to children having limits set by parents on the sexually explicit material their kids have access to.  I am opposed to having other parents setting the limits they want on my children, which this law appears to encompass.  There are protections for parents wanting limits on their children, but parents who may not agree to those limits on their own children appear not to be a concern of this law.  As a parent of children who have LGTBQ identities, I am highly concerned that they will face discrimination as a result of this law, being blocked access from material they need to help them work through their identity.  In addition, the definition of sexually explicit will not fall to the law but fall to teachers and librarians who will have pressure to avoid conflict.  This law will likely force them to fall to the lowest common denominator, blocking all children from any access to media even mentioning LGTBQ existence, or even mentioning items such as birth control, as they have to limit all material due to limited resources and time to answer every request.  The law makes it easy to make "denial of service requests"  as small numbers of parent could create large numbers of requests, overwhelming those teachers and librarians who have so little time as it is to do such work.  Please define the sexually explicit material so that LGTBQ children are protected to have accesses to the resources they desperately need.  Do not let the vocal minority of parents determine what access other children have to educational material.

CommentID: 122624