GEORGETOWN, Del. — A school board member in downstate Delaware is opposed to a new health curriculum that includes definitions for terms including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.
The Daily Times of Salisbury, Md., reports that Indian River School District Board of Education member Shaun Fink spoke at a meeting this week about his opposition to the curriculum. He says schools in the district should not be teaching “anything that discusses gender identity, homosexuality.”
Fink says it’s not the place of schools to teach whether being gay is “normal.”
“I am objecting publicly to anything that discusses gender identity, homosexuality,” Shaun Fink said. “There needs to be a discussion in an open forum about this, this is not something that can just slip by.”
The lesson Fink refers to also discusses definitions of transgender people and gender roles. One teacher commented transgender students currently attend district schools.
Fink and a member of the public said that type of education should be done at home, with parents.
“Schools have no role in teaching someone ‘if you’re gay you’re normal.’ That is not the school’s role,” Fink said, putting air quotes around the phrase. “When did the school become the arbiter of what’s normal and what’s not normal.”
Some teachers pushed back against Fink’s concerns, saying that some students aren’t learning about transgender people or other topics related to sexual orientation at home.
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Fink also objected to teaching methods of preventing HIV, STD and pregnancy, saying doing so would violate the state’s Title 14 requirement to have an abstinence heavy curriculum.
“You can’t teach both sides of it,” he said. “Condoms don’t belong in a classroom. End of story.”
