Saline Area Schools: Sex Education Advisory Board (SEAB) Public Hearing #1

001we have one two you need we do uh I'd like to welcome everybody I'd like to call to Ard the uh sex education Advisory Board public hearing number one on June 10th 2024 uh and so standing as you are able we'll just begin as a regular meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Jenny Miller iedge Al to the flag of the United States of amice thank you have a brief statement before we begin uh if you don't know yet my name is Michael McBay the board president uh we have a quorum tonight one two three four I understand we have two other members are going to be joining us just a little bit late and one can't be here this evening so we do indeed have a quorum so this is indeed a board

002meeting uh I'd like to welcome you to the special meeting of the Selen Area Schools Board of Education um Michigan statutes specify the formation of a sexed Advisory Board uh the seab with very specific parameters regarding the scab's makeup and its charge so according to Michigan law and our resulting board policy 2418 before we as a district adopt any revisions in the materials or methods used in sex education instruction the board shall hold at least two public hearings on the proposed revisions tonight we will hold the first of these public meetings and the second will occur sometime in August but really no later than September uh this evening's special education special Board of Education meeting has a quorum of board members tonight and we're joined near the table by the co-chairs of the seab uh

003Cameron Cochran a school administrator in the district and Kristen Hoffman perer a parent in the district uh and they will be doing the the bulk of the presentation tonight I'd like to also note that two board members were active participants on this committee during the year trustee Susan Eep and trustee Lauren gold um now there may also be in the audience some seab members I won't call you out by name because I don't know who you all are but I do want to thank you for your service and your time that you spent working on this is rather difficult the co-chairs will Pro the evening will take will consist of three parts the co-chairs will provide an overview uh presentation of the revisions to the curriculum and then the members of the Board of Education

004will pose clarifying questions to them related to these revisions we're not deliberating on acceptance yet we are at the point where we're just seeking clarifying questions it's an important distinction finally the floor is going to be open uh to the public for public comment on the curriculum you're encouraged to share your thoughts and pose questions related to the curriculum revisions members of the seab will take your questions and we're not quite sure yet about how we will respond either by email directly or in a public facing document uh and we also reserve the right to answer some of your questions immediately if they're really quickies uh like easy answers uh that might move the ball down the field with that said I'd like to uh introduce you to Christen Hoffman peler and Cameron Cochran and

005then the floor is yours you know how to work the microphone and uh those at home are watching this presentation and we're anxious to uh find out what you have to say all right good evening thank you for gathering tonight for the first of two public hearings on the recommendation of new sexual education curriculum for fourth through 8th grades here at Selen area schools we are excited to present this information to the stakeholders of Selen area schools after many years of work by the members of multiple terms of the sex ed advisory boards here in Seline we'd like to start this evening with a brief tour of our current sexed curriculum and following that we'll talk about our students need for an updated curriculum then introduce our recommendation to the public in the Board of

006Education as Mr McVey said my name is Cameron Cochran I am the proud assistant principal at Heritage School here in Selene I'm Kristen Hoffman perer proud parent of Selene Hornets so after we uh introduce our recommendation as Mr McVey said there will be time for questions from the board as well as public comment so what does SAS currently use for sex ed in the 4th through 8th grade the term inadequate is not one that I would usually ascribe to anything associated with Selen areia School however anyone with the most basic knowledge of our current adolescent Health programming would agree that we can do better by our students in this regard as you can see in grades 4 through six we utilized the program called puberty The Wonder Years um the program was originally written in

0072002 uh we currently utilize the version that was approved in 2010 uh and the videos that are utilized in that are from were recorded first in the year 2000 um so while the information on the concept of puberty has not changed the ways in which students engage with educational content certainly has the videos are so outdated that the information is getting lost in the awe of the olden days sadly we have teachers on staff at Heritage that as fourth and fifth graders both here in Selena and other districts viewed the exact same video as our current students with the only thing different being the fact that a VHS player was used at that time uh in sixth and seventh grade you can see we use utilize The Wonder Years and then going up to sorry

008in sixth grade we utilize The Wonder Years going up to seventh and e8th grade the focus is largely on Maman and human reproduction the bulk of the text utilized in in that program is from 2002 with some updates in 2010 you can see that in grade seven the biology lessons are from a textbook from 2005 so since the early 2000s uh the district or sorry I will also say in 8th grade the current curriculum utilized uh select lessons from the 2010 version of the Michigan model curriculum um and for context next year's eighth grade class where newborns are not yet born when that curriculum was first written since the early 2000s this district has made many improvements in a variety of areas we've heard from students staff and families anecdotally and through survey responses that

009improvements are needed to our sexed curriculum so why now why do we need an update well um a huge part of it is technology with the internet at their fingertips children are accessing sending and receiving more sexually explicit information at younger ages than their parents ever did 21st century kids have to learn how to navigate the quick and easy access they have to developmentally inappropriate sexual materials and did you know I didn't know this um that 54% of kids have seen or accessed point porn by the time they are 13 and that the average age of first porn access is less than 12 years old and we know so far that sexting occurs in our district between Fifth and 12th grades it's really imperative that we help kids make safe choices by giving them useful

010and accurate information to guide them so today's students need comprehensive evidence-based and inclusive curriculum in order to provide them with Timely and accurate sexed information before they become sexually active Myriad studies show that the sooner we start developmentally appropriate teaching about sexual health both at home and at school the safer kids are and remain for longer you'll also see on this Slide the new law that was enacted in July 2023 the Michigan legislature enacted this bill called Senate Bill 66 that requires all Michigan school districts to teach and provide materials on sexual assault and consent to all students grades 6 through 12 this is similar to the HIV law in that it's required teaching separate from sex head and that means that regardless of whether or not a district chooses to adopt a sex head

011curriculum they still must teach about HIV and AIDS and now sexual assault and consent a new curriculum will satisfy this new requirement from Michigan uh we have new survey results K12 Insight helped us uh complete a survey last year in 2023 of stakeholders students staff and caregivers to identify the community's thoughts around sexed teaching and learning and we'll review some highlights of that survey in a future slide as Cameron already said it's clear that our curriculum is old SAS has long been committed to best practices in education and sexed should also align with that mission so let's look at some data in a newly published article I'm actually starting at the bottom of the slide it was just easier to put the the bar at the top in a newly published article from jamama the

012Journal of American Metal Medical Association the onset of a girl's first period is about six months earlier than in Prior decades at the age of just under 12 and this means that when you think of a bell curve if the middle is 12 there's a significant increase in the number of girls getting their periods as early as age eight or nine that's a really big difference if we think of fourth graders being the beginning of um puberty education they're already nine walking in the door most likely and so there are kids in our third grade buildings who have already gotten their periods before they get this education washingon County participates in the myi health behavior survey on odd school years we don't have the 2023 data out yet and you'll notice that this data if

013you look at the slide shows a marked increase in sexual intercourse from 9th to 11th grade trade this is a clear indicator that what we are currently teaching is not resonating with students or affecting change and being able to scaffold information from middle school to high school should decrease these percentages it's also important to note that of the 11 districts in Washton County only six participate in these years the myi survey is the easiest way for our community and this Committee in particular to track the trends in our community and I would encourage the district to continue participation at the middle school and high school levels so that we can accurately assess our students needs when it comes to health and safety so let's look at the national Trends the chart that you see on

014the slide is from the national Center of health statistics it breaks down by age the probability that a person has had vaginal incourse intercourse by that age you can see that the probability increases is at every age over the two time periods from the the top line of at age 15.1 or 11% to 21% below that equally concerning is that this same report tells us that reported condom use has decreased to less than 50% for females and to 68% for males what does that mean more kids are having sex with less protection and this is only vaginal sex oral sex rates are higher at 25 to 28% by the age of 16 and begins at a younger average age prior to the age of 15 so how do we help our kids by acknowledging that

015sex will be a part of the human experience for Mo of most of us and give our kids accurate information before they start sexual activity so Selen area schools has long been committed to a comprehensive sexed curriculum for decades in fact what does that mean it means that we are teaching students that sexual health is a whole person commitment it involves your body your mind your heart and your head it aims to provide all the information you need to make safe and healthy decisions starting in puberty through teenhood and into adulthood Does it include abstinence absolutely and it actually stresses abstinence as the only 100% % effective method of prevention for sexual health and well-being does a comprehensive curriculum encourage a child to have sex actually it's the opposite for decades Studies have shown that

016kids giving kids more information actually makes them less likely to choose to be sexually active and someday when they do choose to have sex they are more likely to protect themselves and their Partners from STI in pregnancy I want to highlight this top link here the importance of Access Link think um it is a really really excellent annotated overview from the American Academy of Pediatrics for the need for contemp or for comprehensive sex ed for school-aged children it walks you through just about any question that you could imagine on that one and the other two links here are two Landmark longitudinal studies over Decades of time that support the link between comprehensive sex ed and decreased early sexual activity and safer choices when kids finally do decide to have sex so that K12 survey a

017portion of the K12 survey um the whole thing is linked here but we're just going to review some of the themes you all saw this we did a public presentation on this last year um we surveyed current caregivers students and staff in our district about sexed scope and sequence and across the board every stakeholder group wants more information early clear for students they want all students included in the curriculum including students from different cultures and lgbtq students and they want kids to learn about consent and it was concerning how many comments there were from students about sexual assault experiences and Dating Violence experiences and our district data does support that same anecdotal evidence here are a couple of looks at some of these comments these are taken right from the survey health class should never

018be about convincing students to not have sex but instead teaching them how to be safe when they inevitably become adults and make that decision I'm not going to read to you all of these slides but you'll see the themes here parents they want consent and communication earlier less shame avoiding abstinence only messages there are in every group people who are resistant to having sex at in school at all call and fortunately M Michigan law supports that there is no penalty for um having your kid not participate and you'll see here from the staff it's the same messages coming from them Cameron all right so getting into our new curriculum or our recommended curriculum our team of Seline community members and staff reviewed four different curricula written for our target age group uh of fourth through

0198th grade we then narrowed it down to two potential curricula and then did a deep dive into those two after significant discussion over multiple months the cab voted unanimously with one exstension to move positive prevention Plus for to the public hearing process P3 as we like to call it is aligned with the national sexual health education standards as well as the SAS policies mission and goals it is is evidence-based and comprehensive and it is aligned with best practice in sexual health education P3 is regularly reviewed every two years um and any updates that we would propose would go through this same process it grows with our students each year so fourth through 8th grade uh consistent languages is utilized and it is in an age appropriate way um the methods of instruction are also consistent

020so we will now begin to tell you about our recommendations it's important to start this part of the presentation by saying that per Michigan law SAS families always have the right to review the curriculum resources and videos ahead of time observe instruction and opt their children out of adolescent Health if they choose to do so public review of the recommended updates will be available at Liberty starting this week through the second public hearing in late August community members interested in reviewing the curriculum and materials are encouraged to email me or Cara Davis uh to schedule a time to do so so we're now going through our proposed scope and sequence we'll look at each grade level um and then highlight some example slides videos and resources within each grade level one nice thing about the

021positive prevention plus curriculum is that it is designed to be flexible that means that districts can create the sequence of lessons that works best for their particular District's needs in the next few slides we will give an overview of the recommended scope and sequence for each grade level and highlight key parts of lessons in Greater detail the Upper Elementary curriculum consists of eight lessons divided between fourth and fifth grades currently adolescent health is taught in fourth and fifth grades over the course of about one week in the spring Heritage and the proposed curriculum would be consistent in this Regard in the fourth grade you can see that there are six lessons that help students to understand some of the changes that they are currently going through or will be going through soon and it also

022supports students with being a kind and respectful peer so here are some slides from lesson three and Lesson Four Lesson Four is covered in both the fourth and the fifth grades and we'll talk more about that in a little bit so lesson three is about bullying behaviors and about not partaking in Behavior like that ground rules for social media are included in that lesson so as Kristen mentioned students having access to technology um in this time it's important to be having those conversations both at home and at school so this slide in in lesson three talks about boundaries when being pressured and walks through potential scenarios with students and potential responses to avoid risky behaviors and situations this lesson also includes strategies and how to communicate your feelings both nonverbally and verbally I we'll say

023two later on during the question and answer period if the board would like to see any more of this in Greater detail we can certainly go through that so this is Lesson Four on puberty and the slide talks about the changes in someone with a vagina during puberty so utilizing inclusive language which was an appeal that this y felt was appropriate within lesson 4 it also talks about the social and emotional changes that students experience during puberty a big goal of adolescent health is to destigmatize and reduce shame and normalize this complicated process in a student's life so all four of the curricula we reviewed were more inclusive than our current programming the committee appreciated the fact that positive prevention plus uses inclusive language and covers topics such as gender and sexual identity in an

024age appropriate way for example in Lesson Four which occurs in fourth and fifth grade on puberty the following terms are defined biological sex gender sexual orientation gender identity gender expression and transgender in lesson forward is solely the the definitions that are given to students students are encouraged to have conversations when they have deeper questions with a trusted adult at home each lesson comes with an accompanying uh teacher resource that walks through uh scripts and prompts for teachers to use here's an example of the first page of the lesson for um teacher resource each lesson is about 10 pages long uh give or take and that includes the classroom materials that are used for those lessons so moving on to fifth grade you'll notice that there are repeated lessons here that were the same in fourth

025and fifth specifically Lesson Four on puberty lesson six on hygiene and lesson eight on staying safe and healthy this is purposeful since spiraling of information from year to year improves student student learning and retention so also note that in lesson five on human reproduction the committee recommends that part e of that lesson that defines sexual intercourse be removed from the fifth grade and moved to sixth the lesson still includes reproductive structure and function for both male and female anatomy this is consistent with the current curriculum that's in place now um the scope and sequence that's utilized lesson five also defines ejaculation and masturbation this is an update from the existing curriculum uh the curriculum includes drawings of erections and ejaculations uh like in the following slides so here on lesson five the idea of external

026and internal sexual organs is introduced so here it's defining what an direction is and that they can sometimes occur an embarrassing time again trying to reduce shame and inform students here's the slide that defines nocturnal emissions which is currently in place as well as masturbation which is an update emphasizing that this is a private Behavior so in lesson 7 we fulfilled the state law to teach HIV in every building where adolescent health is taught the committee recommends moving sorry removing the discussion on other STI in this lesson and solely focusing on HIV so another important component of the recommended curriculum is its focus on consent and refusal skills that Kristen talked about a little bit earlier um doing so in an age appropriate way as well these Concepts will be taught in the K3 buildings

027during the body safety presentations that were presented last fall these will these Concepts will be reviewed during adolescent Health in the fourth through 8th grades again in an age appropriate way here we can see an example of that type of discussion in lesson eight which is covered in the fourth and fifth grades the committee had a lengthy discussion on whether or not to include lesson 8 in its entirety because of the mention of sex trafficking as an example of something one should never be asked to do namely engaging in sexual acts for money ultimately the committee decided to only recommend showing the consent video in fourth grade omitting the rest of the lesson eight at that grade level for fifth grade the committee decided to recommend showing uh the consent video again and covering Parts

028C through F of that lesson that do not mention sex trafficking part C through F focuses on staying physically and mentally healthy and some sample slides from that lesson are shown here again the committee appreciated the holistic approach to this curriculum and its emphasis on not just the physical changes but the social emotional and mental changes that occur during puberty So within the positive prevention plus curriculum there there are embedded videos within each lesson that help frame the main theme of that lesson you'll notice that at each grade level the cab decided to add some supplemental videos for some topics these videos are meant to engage students and to help further explain certain important Concepts a large majority of these topics are addressed in the current curriculum the recommended updates from positive prevention plus provide

029a more engaging modern and inclusive experience for Seline students for the sake of time we will not be showing all six of the recommended supplemental videos from fourth and fifth grade the videos are listed here and can all be accessed through YouTube we will show the consent video as an example as well as one of the embedded videos included in lesson one consent for kids this is you okay it doesn't look exactly like you but let's say it's you this is your body and you get to decide what you do with your body no one else is entitled to tell you what to do with your body not your friends not strangers not adults you know no one is entitled to decide what you do with your body except you that's called bodily autonomy by

030the way and that's what consent is all about everyone is different some people love to hug and some people hate hugs and each person gets to decide what they're comfortable with can a hug loving person just start hugging someone at random nope they need consent how do people know if they have consent they ask would you like a hug yes I would can I hold your hand I'd rather not okay if a person doesn't say yes can I hug you um I uh then they haven't given their consent it's really pretty simple ask for consent listen to the answer by the way if a person bribes someone or threatens someone to say yes that's not consent sometimes adults will try to tell a kid what to do with their body go kiss aunt Doris goodbye

031but the kid still gets to decide no thanks that makes me uncomfortable I'll just wave goodbye some things kids can't consent to they can't enter into legal contracts they can't vote and they can't consent to sexual stuff cuz they're kids so if an adult does something that kids can't consent to that's not okay the adult is wrong and it's not the kid's fault and that's when it's most important to tell a trusted adult like a teacher why because it's your body and no one else is entitled to tell you what to do with it practice consent okay so next we just wanted to show one example of the embedded videos that are included within each lesson that help kind of set up the topic so this is the start of lesson one might need to

032refresh here and that is where babies come from now let's talk about the changes your bodies are going through can anyone tell me what is the definition of puberty oh my gosh that was awward yeah I know I can't stand talking about the p word which one puberty or period H you guys are so gross uh guys do you want to come over to my place to play video games yeah awesome totally hi guys nice to see you all so what did you learn in school school today well we learned about puberty oh what did you find most interesting about the lesson on puberty so at the end of that lesson there's a follow-up video where the students are sitting around and talking about how it actually wasn't that bad that kind of fear of

033the unknown is a common theme among fourth and fifth graders during adolescent Health time okay so moving on to Middle School one big benefit of using the same curriculum from Heritage to the middle school is that we are expanding on the knowledge based from Upper Elementary using the same format and language but increasing the content again in a developmentally appropriate way the familiarity sets students up for learning right away because they recognize the format and know what to expect from the curriculum in sixth grade as in the current curriculum intercourse is defined similar to fourth and fifth grade the recommended lessons for sixth graders include topics meant to help students understand some of the changes they are currently going through or will be going through soon and support with being a kind respectful peer you

034can see the similar topics and again the increase in um language and and how It's Des discussed at the sixth grade level okay so as in previous grades the cab decided to add supplemental videos to the curriculum in grade six we wanted to include a video that goes into detail about how someone gets pregnant but we were split between two good options the committee recognized that some community members may have concerns uh with a resource from Planned Parenthood we are asking that the board determine which of the following two videos should be approved appr to show our sixth grade students I will show you the first video from amaz and the second video from plann Parenthood again both of these can be accessed via YouTube where do babies come from like how do we get

035here when broken down it's a simple thing every species reproduces but in different ways for humans to make a baby there's lots of stuff that must be just right but the two key players are her and the egg at puberty everyone's body changes and becomes able to reproduce at some point between the age of 8 to 13 a person that is biologically a female starts ovulating it's also called the menstrual cycle or starting their period about once a month the ovaries release a teeny tiny egg into the flan tubes if it's not fertilized after it's released the egg is flushed out of the body during the period when a person that is biologically male puberty usually between 12 and 16 the testicles begin to make sperm cells these cells travel in Milky fluid created by

036another gland this mixture is known as semen this is the fluid that is released during an ejaculation there are lots of ways a sperm and egg can get together and join one of the most popular ways is when semen is released from the penis into the vagina once those Little Swimmers are in there the sperm race through the vaginal Canal pass the cervix through the UN into the flow pan tubes spray Weare drawn to the egg like a moth to a flame now if you don't want to become pregnant when you have sex there are a lot of simple ways to stop it from happening we call this contraception when you want to have a baby sometimes people are not able to have a baby using the most popular method when this happens doctors could

037totally help them out like using a tool to place spurm into the vagina near an egg or a doctor can actually join the sperm and egg together outside of the body and then place the fertilized egg into the uterus all these methods achieve the same thing the sperm and the Egg get together and unite becoming a single cell this is called a zygote as a zygote travels down the flent tube towards the uterus looking for a place to Nest this tiny ball of cells divides and multiplies over and over and over if the zyo does not find a good nesting spot in the uterine lining it passes out of the body during menstration or the period if this IO does find a nesting place this marks the moment when pregnancy actually begins and the fetus

038starts to grow into what is called an embryo the time it takes for a baby to develop is divided into three stages called trimesters it takes an embryo about 9 months or 39 weeks to develop into a fully developed baby the zygote starts the size of a poppy seed and grows into the size of well a baby most of a pregnancy takes place in the warm and comfy uterus also known as the w it has all the nutrients needed for that little ball of cells to develop into a fully formed body during the 39th week a fetus is considered full term after about 9 months a baby is generally ready to enter the world there are several different ways a baby can make their appearance into the world they usually come through the vagina but

039sometimes if necessary doctors need to help them out they do this by opening the uterus and removing the baby that way this is called a cerian section or a C-section for short making babies is a natural part of life and we all start from the joining of a sperm and egg we're all more alike than you think here's the second video on the same topic pregnancy is a pretty amazing process it all starts with sperm and an egg sperm are tiny microscopic cells that are made in testicles sperm cells mixed with other fluids to make semen which spurts out of your penis when you ejaculate eggs live in ovaries and the hormones that control your menstrual cycle cause eggs to mature every month these hormones also make the lining of your uterus thick and spongy

040to prepare for a possible pregnancy every month one mature egg leaves your ovary this is called ovulation that egg travels through your fallopian tube which takes about 12 to 2 24 hours if seen gets into your vagina sperm can swim up through your cervix uterus and opan tubes searching for an egg sperm cells can live in your body for up to 6 days waiting for an egg to show up millions of sperm come out during each ejaculation but it only takes one sperm to meet with an egg which can lead to pregnancy when a sperm cell joins with an egg it's called fertilization after that happens the fertilized egg begins to divide into more and more cells and moves towards your uterus the ball of cells gets to your uterus about 3 to 4 days

041after fertilization where it can float around for another few days if the ball of cells attaches to the spongy uterine lining pregnancy officially begins this is called implantation it usually takes around 3 to 4 days to finish implanting up to half of all fertilized eggs naturally don't implant they pass out of your body during your period when the ball of cells implants into your uterine lining your body starts making pregnancy hormones these hormones keep your uterine lining in place so it can nourish the pregnancy that's why you don't get your period when you're pregnant but if sperm and egg don't meet a up or a fertilized egg doesn't implant into your uterus the lining isn't needed and it flows out of your vagina that's your period so it actually takes a lot of steps and

042up to 2 to 3 weeks for pregnancy to happen want to learn more about pregnancy check out planned parenthood.org pregnancy is a pretty amazing okay so here's some additional sample slides from lesson one two and four that are taught at the sixth grade level in the sixth grade there is a lesson on gender and sexual orientation that goes uh a little bit deeper than just the defining of the terms but is also framed in the importance of respecting those that may have different identities than us again this is important for all of our students to be able to see themselves in their curric in our curriculum so again these are topics that students may have an awareness of they may have heard before but there is often confusion about these terms on a separate lesson

043on bullying and abuse again this kind of adds to the lesson in the Upper Elementary on bullying behaviors um and mentions sexual harassment again this is just one slide in that lesson there are multiple examples of kind of bullying and abuse but you can see this is an example of how the language is kind of increased into this more um Middle School experience within this lesson the idea of consent is reintroduced okay then going into seventh grade uh in seventh grade lessons three and four are repeated from sixth grade to again spiral that information we also recommend addressing HIV to ensure that the state law is covered and STI note that in Lesson 12 on HIV and STI uh we are recommending Parts A and B only of that lesson which teaches how viruses are

044spread it eliminates by taking out aspects of that lesson um how to find resources for testing it is excellent information in a well planned format but we felt as a committee that it did not fit our community's particular needs at the middle school level sorry that was Lesson 12 on HIV STI how viruses are spread it covers Parts A and B only by talking about how viruses are spread talking about HIV um but it does not include uh how to find resources for testing so here are some examples of in-class resources that students will complete during lessons um that help guide conversations and discussions uh within the class so it's not just a sit and get format rather students are asked to kind of engage with the content so um this document on the left

045about my Escape Plan um is tied to um media and peer pressure lesson 11 same with the document on the right the sample pressure lines it's kind of hard to see um but one of the pressure lines at the top says come to the party with me there won't be any parents and we can get totally loaded and then a negotiation response is something that the students would work together with the teacher how to respond in that difficult um risky situation within that laston there's also practice of assertive skills and refusal skills all right and Kristen will be talking about the eighth grade lessons we made it to eth grade home stretch so grade eight is where we see the biggest differences from our current curriculum right now in 8th grade um there are pages

046from a biology textbook that are really centered on um a lot of mamalian biology and also humans like we are in the mammal category um there there is a little bit of social emotional learning but for the most part everything comes from this very dry biology textbook um we felt strongly as a committee that only covering sexual reproduction from a biology textbook is insufficient given the complex challenges and social situations middle school students face with the updated curriculum we have the opportunity to empower students with more knowledge and tools to maneuver through the challenges of adolescence in the 21st century and as my seventh grader reminds me nearly daily mom things are not the same as when you were my age and she's right the sequence begins with a quick review of anatomy from the

047sixth grade lesson one um and then moves into the prevention of pregnancy including birth control options and then teen pregnancy itself including fetal development alternatives to keeping the baby and decisionmaking and please note that in accordance with Michigan law this lesson does not mention abortion as an option so let's take a look at a slide what is the best way to avoid a pregnancy this curriculum leans into abstinence in many of the lessons like in this slide you'll see right away the first bullet in red is choosing not to have sex is the only certain way to prev prevent an unplanned pregnancy and then here's the slide about options you'll notice there is no mention anywhere about abortion Safe Surrender is one of the Michigan law requirements and we do talk about that in this

048lesson and then they go on to fetal development that again scaffolding on the information that they learned in sixth grade about how pregnancy occurs then what happens during that pregnancy we talk about fetal development there is a slide for each trimester this is the first trimester Slide the other two look exactly like this just with second and third trimester information here's an example of what that looks like and then we also cover STI in eth grade and why do we do that well we know from the previous data that by the time a kid comes into 9th grade 11% of them 21% of them in between 2015 and 2019 have already had sex before walking in the door most sleen area schools high school kids take um health class in ninth grade so we have

049missed one one in five of those kids already um sexual uh or sexually transmitted infections are a very real consequence and we also learned that less than 50% of of females use condoms and less uh less than 70% of males do that's not great odds STI again here you see that abstinence messaging again and you might be thinking why can't we just leave it at that and just say you guys just don't of sex because kids need the why they need the why why is it important to wait why do we need to be prepared mentally physically and emotionally for sexual activity it's not enough just to say don't do it and teens are pretty concrete thinkers for quite a while but they're also in this Wing stretching time of life where they want more

050Independence and more grown up behaviors and and thinking and this slide gives them actionable choices for themselves for the teens to be in control and to keep themselves safe we get to a point as parents where we don't get to choose their own adventure anymore they're choosing their own we want students to own this information long before they are in a decision-making situation just like when we practice stop drop and roll in state in Safety Town we practice other healthy info and choices as well and we pair it with something they already know for example universal precautions this generation of kids just survived a pandemic they know this stuff so let's review this and then apply the same logic to Sexual Health introducing condoms and the vital role they play before the student is in

051a sexual situation increases the chances that they're going to remember the importance of condom use with sex do we want the first choice to be abstinent absolutely so let's end the lesson and reinforce that message again spiraling that information around and around keeps it relevant and in their heads and let's address why making safe choices is important here are two of the activities in the final lesson of 8th grade the why every teen is looking for goal setting what are my goals for the next few years of my life and then the personal contract how am I going to get to those goals by not getting pregnant not having an STI not putting myself into risky situations all of these things that we've talked about since fourth grade that keep building and Scaffolding and growing

052with the kids like the rest of uh the lessons we have supplemental videos you've seen these and they reinforce that messaging of the discussions in a visual format that kids are super used to now one of the parts of positive prevention plus that we really love is the appendix of parent resources and education sex ed starts at home with a million tiny conversations because it can be difficult for some of the grown-ups to get started with those conversations we love that P3 recognizes and supports the importance of caregiver conversations with their kids having this appendix of resources and the grown-up and student homework after each lesson gives caregivers lots of opportunities for talking with their own students on their own time and with their own values included and here are a couple of examples of

053the parent resources one is guidelines for parents for talking with children and teens be honest use those teachable moments as they come up you know you see in in old movies like in the 80s and stuff where the parents will sit down with their kids and say all right I'd like to tell you about the birds and the bees and then they have this one conversation in everybody knows everything about having sex and everyone lives happily ever after and the laugh track and the clap track comes in right real life doesn't work like that we are taking those tiny moments the little blips of things we see on TV the little conversations that we hear on the bus all of these things and we create teachable moments there's also sexting this my generation who are

054having kids we didn't have cell phones I didn't get a cellone pH until I was nearly an adult what is sexting why do they do it why isn't it okay just to take away the phone why doesn't that fix it and again it comes back to that why kids want to know why why do we have these rules why do you have expectations for me all those things and the parent resources are fantastic about addressing those questions for grown-ups before they talk to their kids and as a parent of teens I recognize that in all sorts of ways my job is to ready my kids to move through the world without me and I have to balance my rules and my expectations with their emerging Independence so that when I'm not there they have the

055information that they need to make safe choices for themselves even if it might look different than what I had planned for them and that process of trust building takes time and attention it's those millions of tiny conversations and talking about healthy human sexuality with our kids is part of that trust building Independence project called parenting and this curriculum supports that work thank you so much for making it through this with us yeah and before we hand it over to the board for questions again I just wanted to thank our cab members the community members that were a part of this lengthy process to identify this curriculum and propose it for recommendation without their support we wouldn't be here um and you know ultimately what we're trying to do here is just to help make Selen

056area schools uh more informed and safer place for for kids so what questions do you all have first of all Cameron and Kristen thank you very much it was not as nearly as challenging as you might as you tried to persuade as that it was but we'll go around the table if you have something to say I'll just try and try and make eye contact and uh we'll go from there thanks um I have a um some questions and comments so I'll um I'll start but then if you want me to stop or if you want to get back to us that those there always options um so one of the things that you said is that this is kind of um an accumulative uh curriculum that it grows with the kids so when they

057start in fourth grade it kind of starts um the vocabulary and some of the formatting that then is familiar as they move forward so I wondered if you might have a plan for how it will be implemented so that the eighth graders aren't coming into it without that accumulate accumulation um previous so do you want me to pause on that I didn't I didn't know since they won't have the fourth fifth sixth seventh they'll they'll be coming from a different curriculum is there a way for us to bridge that for them the current like the in becoming the people who would have it first I guess in eth grade yeah I mean I think that in if if this were to be approved by the board um I think that there could be a way

058that we catch some kids up over time and we can absolutely create a um catchup scope and sequence for that um the thing that's so great is that these are modules that you can pick and pull and pull them apart and we can I think that's an easy ask yeah yeah I think I mean often with curriculums that Happ happens where um you know like a phonics curriculum when there's a change um to a more explicit phonics curriculum there's sometimes holes and gaps that we see so I think that could be something that the definitely curriculum um Team the teaching and learning team could help with too um trying to think of what else and I would just say too that you know if it was a seventh grade kind of catch-up curriculum we wouldn't

059be introducing any eighth grade Concepts right right exactly so you know we would be mindful of that age appropriate concept yeah it would seem that you would you would fill in the gaps with the things that would have been previously developmentally appropriate but not introduced when they were there because we didn't have that curriculum um a couple of other things oh I wondered um for sixth grade you showed us the two videos and you said you wanted the board to make a decision on those two you know which video would be would be um selected so um I guess my question is uh typically the seab comes to us with their recommendations so I'm wondering about how you would like us to discern and make that decision well honestly the committee was almost completely split

060in half and so we thought let's open it up and see if you guys like if one of them jumps out to you um I we were very hesitant to put a Planned Parenthood video in there because there are strong feelings about that organization however this content is so great um the way that they present it with labels and very um you know line drawing clinical it feels really accessible to kids um and but we didn't want to make that decision without some extra input which is why we're sending the choice over I wonder when I was watching it um when I was watching the two of them the one thing that did come to mind was because we know there is kind of a stigma and some strong feelings um regarding Planned Parenthood the

061end of that video when it says want to know more about this right so I wondered if there would if Planned Parenthood I know it's probably copyrighted is there a way for us to get around having that ending piece that was one thing that I that was one thing that I was thinking about so that's a really good question and it kind of brings up a point to about some of the lessons that we've decided to take portions out of so what we would do for an example a lesson that we decided to remove an aspect of that we would create a different slideshow presentation so that those slides from that lesson that were removed would be not even available to teachers to access um to show to kids in classrooms we can certainly look

062at the feasibility of I guess editing a YouTube You Know video and and reach out to the organization if it was something that we decided to do that's that's definitely something I was just curious because it does also seem that like you want to know more about this we're learning about it you know right in this class so um so you know that's that's also um something that I was thinking about I'm sure I have others but I'm not going to take up all of the time I am anxious to hear feedback from the community and from people who are watching at home and here in the room um because there was lots to think about I took lots of notes so I want to hear from the rest of the table and if there's

063more I'll come back um so first I I don't want to give too much um I know this is an opportunity for the public um you know as it's a public forum um to give the in input and I would like that to be you know PRI prior to the board getting the recommendation and um you know uh you all taking so much of what our opinions are um is super helpful but you know I I'm looking forward to hearing from the public um as a whole as well yeah and one of the things that we love about this process is that a lot of times you all are going to ask questions that the public already has and so by doing it this way um and following you know meeting orders and rules and

064things like that that we're hoping to catch some of those questions from you that the public might also be thinking in their minds too go on yep just don't want to restrict the board have any restrictions um you know uh on any of this prior to um it yep um so um I want to thank the uh cab members um and the co-chairs as well um and Lauren um you know I think this has been a lot of work that's um been happening over the past couple years and um it was a really really deep dive into um the curriculum and um did we have four or five like At first that we went through and um and so it was a really um I think great process um I'm glad that we had um

065stuff from the previous uh cab um where the survey took place and um that we had all of those goals set and so um I'm glad that we're finally at this point and hopefully get to the uh point of the high school um curriculum soon as well um you know I think we got a great great committee that's you know um doing some great great work um I so thank you um Kristen for mentioning the myi survey data when I saw the current data I was kind of um disappointed that um that didn't include our Middle School data because that a decision was made last minute for um the middle schoolers I believe this is seventh grade um to not take the survey here in the district um that was just kind of a quick

066decision um and uh that was uh very very unfortunate um and so um you know thank you for mentioning that um I back that up 100% um question with Will classes be split up by gender as I know they are yeah so it is our recommendation that classes do not be split by gender um for a couple of reasons one it is best practice and has been in sexual education for a very long time to not split classes up by gender and two by not splitting the kids up a you are keeping them with their school family that they have already built relationships with and B you building empathy for other kids and it also decreases the stigma of when the kids you know girls walk out of one room and boys walk out of

067the other and they look at each other and go oh my God what did you hear you know that that there's no surprises and there's no secrets and everybody knows everything and they can talk about it and reduce shame and stigma so our recommendation is no don't split awesome um two more questions um so um I guess I was looking at kind of the bullying resources and I know um there's kind of a sequence here that's been created um so and just as an example the The Bullying um have you all thought about or can you supplement materials from like our policies or student handbooks and um also law I'm thinking about like maybe laws around sexting that kind of thing so it's kind of couple questions about supplemental materials and what flexibilities the educators

068will have yes so with bullying specifically to answer your question Susan yes uh we do recommend supplementing at least the selary Schools board policy the anti-bullying policy as a component of those lessons that address bullying um especially at the middle school level but but really um in all and I think when we shared some of our proposed final scope and sequence that's in there although I'm I'm seeing that it might not have gotten to this slide for sixth grade but um yeah and we're open to feedback too if there's other possible uh resources or things like that that would be beneficial but at least SAS board policy yeah that's helpful to have that um yeah flexibility especially when it's um part of part of the school right um and then my last um I guess

069ask of you all um so the committee as a whole um didn't create the scope and sequence um so I wanted um you all to kind of explain that process and how you got feedback from the committee members once working on that thank you yeah I can address it and feel free to chime in but um correct so with how uh the P3 curriculum is written it's not defined to specific grade levels so Kristen and I as the co-chairs worked together to create a scope in sequence that laid out an initial draft of where we felt would be most appropriate to have these conversations around these specific lessons at which grade level um and then we sent it out to the cab for review we had some conversations both in person as well as um

070through a go through Google surveys to get people's feedback and then made revisions based on those conversations thank you I love transparency and I just wanted to make sure that um that was represented with the committee and to the community yeah and for example the um the sex trafficking and human trafficking piece was addressed starting in uh Upper Elementary at fourth and fifth grade and the committee as a whole felt quite strongly that that was not um an appropriate lesson for our particular Community because we're pretty in Seer here in Seline and um we we took it right out and made changes and uh in addition with the STI in Upper Elementary the committee felt as a whole that um the kids didn't really need that information until middle school and so we took it

071out yeah yeah I think there are several examples of things that we felt just didn't fit for our community and that door is still open to that conversation so if there are aspects that you have thoughts and questions on we definitely want to hear that thank you uh I want to Echo the idea that you know with this hearing I want to I want to hear from our community and and your thoughts on on this program and what have you because that's really the essence of what we're doing here um but also you know I also will own the fact that I'm glad I have more time and totality to to review this and to listen and I'll own the fact that Dr gold you will be incredibly important to me as a pediatrician because

072I seek out expertise and all of that kind of thing it but um I will state my uh General uh desire my general support for um comprehensive sex set and I do think the work that you're doing is important and I do want the committee to hear about my appreciation for it as well and uh this is a process that is messy and it requires us to be bold and it'll be interesting and all of it let's just be honest but long story short I just think it's important that U I would prefer that my you know own children like you know I could lock them in the room and and never like ever have to have these thoughts but at the same time like that wouldn't be good parenting right and so I appreciate

073the fact that our you do this that our committee does this that our staff supports our students as they go through these these discussions and all of it so um I want to make sure I say that out out loud first I wrote down the same thing that Jenny did I took a whole bunch notes about you know if we did have a preference for number two what was the you know copyright issues with you know because plan Parenthood can be just a challenging piece when you attach it right so uh so I I wrote that down um I wrote down a couple of other things and you can tell me if you want more time with these things but here's the first question I wrote down I wrote tell me about the quick version

074of your decisionmaking process as a committee you said like we took this out but we left this in like how did you engage in those things how did you did you make teams and they reviewed different parts of the curriculum did you do it in totality as a whole like I guess I'm wondering how you came to these recommendations where we took this out but we left that in etc etc yeah so we've been working for months on this and normally this committee meets once a quarter so once every 3 months and um this particular group of people is really awesome and they said no no no we got to meet more often than that and so we've been meeting monthly for a long time and um we've been having these discussions face to face

075and providing opportunity for um Google form commentary for people who maybe didn't want to say something right in the middle of a group and um that has been a fantastic way to gather feedback too um and for later when you get home and you've been sort of rolling around in the information going oh should have said this having another opportunity to do that is really great I have to commend this group of people I've been doing this for a very long time and um this group is a fantastic team they work so well together they are honest forthright respectful they're amazing listeners it has been a really really fantastic experience to get to know these people no and you must have I mean because like for example I wrote down grade seven Lesson 12 on

076H not included resources for testing there had to be a decision-making process that went through that so like I I I appreciate you you saying that that it it was it was quite a a significant group group effort well and I'm not gonna I I I appreciate that that time and and what have you now I wrote down two other things so you talked about um the ninth graders and you said something to the effect of how do we not miss miss these kids before 9th grade right so my thoughts are this like where are specifically seventh and eighth grade students going to encounter this is it in science classes isn't it it's part of the science curriculum correct currently yes okay are you proposing that it stays there or that it becomes a separate

077entity I I would say that ultimately that's going to be a conversation that we have with building Administration and with central office to see what would work best I think logistically we're thinking that it would be about the same time as it's covered as it is currently about a week in science classes um but given the fact that it is more holistic it may lend itself to a health class um in those Upper Grade levels especially but again I think that's ongoing okay and I'm comfortable with leaving those at a a local level I just wanted to know the recommendation of the the of the cab or the team and then and last thing piggy back on that just if I do it um taught in the science classes taught by the same teacher is

078that right so they will undergo some sort of training then during the year go ahead nope go ahead um every teacher that teaches um any sort of sex head has to have a sex head certification so um whoever teaches it that is just part of the deal that they have to have that it does oh you're good and then the last thing is okay so we are you know doing this third grade through 8th grade Why Stop short of or fourth grade through e8th grade why stop why why aren't we making a recommendation in totality meaning why aren't we making a recommendation that continues right through nth grade if we think that the continuity of this program is good for students why stop that would make for a long meeting Brad okay no no but

079I I think ultimately I think we are looking to expand right and I think we want what's best for kids and so we want to get feedback from the community from you all as the board um and we as a committee after looking at multiple options um felt like this was the best one out there and so there is an option at the 9th through 12th grade um we've heard from staff at the high school that that want more and better um we've heard from students and families through that myi survey as well so I I think that you know over time that's definitely something that will be looking at um again just because we needed to have those really robust conversations and dive deep I think we wanted to focus on this level first

080um and for the fact that at the high school there there are some things that are a little bit different um and more updated yeah Dr there now it's on sorry um thank you to this awesome committee and our co-chairs um I would like to start by um saying that I reviewed a whole lot of American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines and medical guidelines AOG which is obstetrics Gynecology AMA I looked at a lot of that and then my friend Kristen came here with a lot of study so she did a lot of that work and presented it all so I am really pleased with that this um is based in uh evidence I think um I just wanted to talk about a little bit of my reactions and the growth that I had thinking about

081this um because I might not be as quite as obvious uh as it uh might seem uh I'm a pediatrician but I'm also a Seline parent and um as I shared with you all I'm sort of the kind of parent who really wants my kids to hang on to their childhood um you know I try to fight against the phones and social media and things like that and I I don't think that that has to be somehow not in line with this curriculum I actually think it does some really great things and I had to remind myself when I was thinking of our fourth and fifth graders getting this first of all of my fourth and fifth graders who are starting puberty I know they said that puberty only went down by six months but

082gosh I feel like in another 10 years we're going to have data that's younger than that I have these conversations regularly with young men ators um it's for you know uh people born male it's not as early um and that's just the biology of it but I think having all the kids learn about this is only going to build empathy and I like the fact that it circles back because I have a an idea raising uh three boys that they're not going to pay as much attention until it starts becoming a little more real for them so I love that this curriculum repeats lessons um I had to remind myself that we do in Pediatrics what we call anticipatory guidance that means when uh a patients come in for their baby's two-month visit I talked

083to them about you know at four months we have a lot of babies who roll off their parents' beds I know it doesn't seem like your baby is going to roll over right now but I promise you once they learn it they go from Rolling like once to like four times and then we get the call so now is the time to stop stop putting them in the middle of your bed while you blow dry your hair or something um you know I talked to kids about deodorant in third grade to try to help my teacher friends um thank you uh and it's not necessary for all of them and even knowing all of that when I first thought about some of this stuff for fourth and fifth graders e even me I was like

084hm I got to think about that but I thought about it and I had conversations and I really think where we got to is something that the vast majority of parents in our district will feel comfortable with um and the vast majority of parents Nationwide support uh comprehensive sexual education there are studies that go you know like 89% in middle school and higher than that like 9s Plus in high school I think that's important to remember because sometimes we hear um the loudest voices and people who have the strongest opinions most but most of us parents would probably like some help in talking about this um I needed my kids kindergarten teachers to help them like learn the days of the week even though I tried and I think sometimes they listen to their teachers

085more than they listen to us parents but parents are shown to be the most important people to have those repeat conversations um one concern that I have in this uh time where are so many of our kids are exploring the gender binary and non-binary and gender identity is that I don't want kids to ever feel like there is one way to be a girl and one way to be a boy um in only one way and I really appreciate one of the videos that I suggest everyone check out um it's a TED Talk um about you don't always you know even though we talk about feeling a certain way with your gender and some kids trans kids feel very much that they are born in the wrong body but you know there's also kids who

086just don't feel like they fit those stereotypes and it all can be very confusing um and so I really liked uh the language that was given I had um you know I was talking to the team about when we introduced that and I really appreciated hearing from Cameron that you know these kids are getting bullied at Heritage and and uh having the language and building empathy early I think is an anti-bullying uh strategy and I am completely in favor of anything that decreases bullying um I think we can't State enough as a community how much we need to limit technology um I think we should continue to have those conversations and I wanted to end because even in the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines regarding teaching comprehensive sex said they talk really specifically about um

087making it culturally relevant and uh taking into into consideration religious preferences cultural norms Community standards um so I was curious as to what my own uh religious community the reformed Judaism Community said about um comprehensive sexuality education and so I thought they had a nice statement I'm going to say it uh comprehensive sexuality education is intrin physically linked to Reproductive Rights without it individuals cannot make informed decisions about their bodies or Futures accurate and comprehensive sex education provides students with the information they need to avoid unwanted pregnancies sexually transmitted STI and other health problems Jewish techs recognize and often celebrate sexuality is a necessary and crucial part of life and development providing young people with accurate and comprehensive sexuality education allows them to respect themselves and their bodies as well as each other so that

088was uh just you know one voice among many that uh that was all I have to say um so I do appreciate all the work um on this in the couple uh like Jenny said the where we got to make the choices on that video I like the idea that if we can separate that out if that's the one we choose because it did seem like a little bit of an advertisement there um but I appreciate you being transparent and bringing that out vers you know there's a lot of slides that we don't see here and so you you you were transparent to bring that out because I that would cause a little bit of a problem I think is there any other places in the curriculum that Planned Parenthood information is being used or

089anything like that nothing else in the curriculum okay that's good um yeah that and then just age appropriate I think as we get more into it I think that's going to be the big thing for me is like what is age appropriate um so yeah I appreciate it thanks as far as um age appropriateness um two things one there is a a really great uh sexuality education in America um sort of national group called seus that goes through age by age um It's s i e c s um so if you Google that you can find it and there is a website that I can even send to you if you want um that takes you through grade level byg grade level and makes their sexed recommendations this is what kids should know in preschool

090this is what kids should know in kindergarten and it's pages and pages and pages long that goes through every possible um scenario section topic that you can think of when it comes to sex head whether it is head heart mind or body and um that is that is a really great place to sort of look at at the um like a clearing house for National recommendations for that and the other piece is when I look at my 16-year-old and you know like playing video games or sitting at the dinner table or whatever I see baby Sam and it is so hard for me to look at that kid and think they're going to have sex at some point you know and and look at Anna and go oh God you know here we go and

091that it's hard not to see your babies in the teenagers that are growing up before your very eyes and so to think of them going through some of these topics at an age where I'm still seeing toddler them trying to get up on the couch is really hard and when it comes down to it for me and I think for a lot of parents around the world is the the idea that we'll do anything to keep our kids safe and um having some of these weird conversations with your baby toddler teen is a hard thing to do and it's hard to think that they're they're there yeah and you know and so I don't know I'm kind of old school here but I'm a 52y old that I don't really care about women's Plumbing you

092know and and so it's hard for me to sit there and think a fourth grader you know in the mix with that yeah you know I don't know so um so I don't know I mean I think yeah so I'm I'm struggling with that I guess a little bit so that might be helpful for me I appreciate you send it if you could send that to me or I'll look it up and um yeah go from there thanks thanks Tim we have one more comment from JM so um two things that didn't come up that I just wanted to Circle back to um maybe three but we'll start with the two so the first thing is that um I appreciated um in the eighth grade lesson especially the goal setting and personal contract um that

093is something that we have um added at our home because um you know everybody has um different family guidelines or suggestions or whatever on when um when dating should occur but we know that sometimes dating doesn't occur under the nose of of the adults so um one of the things that we have added in our conversations at home is um knowing who who you are and what you want ahead of a situation so um not waiting for the the op not waiting for the moment when you are first alone with someone that you care about um and having to make that decision while you know hormones are racing and brains are not fully developed and all of those things so we've had a lot of conversations about you know having having an open dialogue around

094who are you what are the words that you're going to say what is it that you want and and having that available prior to the encounter or the opportunity and I think you know you talk a little bit about that in consent but I think having that contract and thinking through those things ahead of time is really important because we know that all of these things are coming together at once and um you know I I also appreciated like the no shame there's no shame in it but who are you and what do you want to have happen in these situations ahead of time so that we're making decisions when we're not in the moment um so I appreciated that a lot um the other thing that I was going to say and I can't

095remember I think you when you were talking Kristen about um splitting by gender and I did mention this to Cameron before the meeting and um I am the parent of um boy girl twins they identify as boy girl and um they were assigned that way at Birth and so anyway what I was going to say about that is fourth grade and fifth grade were interesting times at our house during the weeks of um reproductive health because um they were split into two separate classrooms so they were coming home with um you know two different sets of information and um it became a bit of a one-upmanship at our house I will say like let me tell you everything that I know well let me tell you everything that I know yeah well this is going

096to happen to me well this is going to happen to me and this you know it kind of went went on and on to the point where you know I didn't I didn't know better I didn't have the parent resources that you have to the point where I said you go take your shower and we're going to have a conversation and then we'll switch because my um husband travels a lot for work and I think that he intentionally planned to be out of town that week so um anyway anyway so um I actually appreciate that it would be the same messaging coming home so that there wouldn't be this feeling of secrecy and like I learned this and you learned learned this well what's going to happen to me is worse than what's going to

097happen to you and um all of those sorts of things um there were there were some really great conversations that came from that um one being don't put your laundry in the closet and hide it like it's okay we can have these conversations um so I appreciate the transparency and um the age appropriateness at which these things are introduced um uh there was one other thing I was just going to say um maybe it'll come to me later but I just um I feel like in watching what we've been able to watch and clicking on the links that you sent to us ahead of time and um hearing it delivered from you today there's a lot to be appreciated about um the the curriculum as a whole and um there are a lot of things

098that I wish I had had as as a child oh that was the other thing I was going to say um my spouse grew up in a household with um with a male brother no sisters and his mother had had you know some medical things so um didn't have that experience until we were married and um that was difficult because um you know he didn't really understand um the the mood swings like all the things that can happen during um a period And so that was one thing that as uncomfortable as it may have been for him I was determined that our male son would have some empathy for his sisters currently and um future partners and um you know girlfriends whatever it might be so I do think there is a benefit um especially

099from just being empathetic to um to your partner and having um and and you know every couple is different and they can make those decisions and I think that that's the other thing that we can keep in mind in terms of parenting that parents have the right to review the curriculum and opt out a portion or all so um so there are there are that is Michigan Law in in terms of sex education so those were the three things that I was thinking about that um weren't touched on that I just thought that I would share from thank you Jenny this little old me you have a quick one sure oh a really long one all right go for it um I just I wanted to to mention the that this curriculum is seems to

100be super inclusive um and I am happy about that um we did pass the transgender and non-binary students policy in 2021 um I know a lot of students our high school students um gave feedback um that that was missing um for lgbtq um inclusive language and um and so I um I want to encourage um I know Cameron you mentioned um looking at the high school curriculum and that's um what did you say a meeting for a day or something so um the committee empowers that be um that we um look at look at that sooner than later to be in compliance with that policy um and Title 9 and other policies as well so thank you for um taking all the feedback and um those um laws and policies um into and best practices

101um into um you know looking at uh what you are proposing and recommending thank you yeah and just before we kind of transition to the next phase I do want to go back to that reminder and encourage folks you know the reason we decided to have this hearing in June and have the second one in August was to really maximize the amount of time that the community had to come in to review this curriculum on their own so again it is a lot and we encourage folks to look at everything and and to come with questions and feedback so please you know we encourage folks to reach out to to me to to Cara um to schedule an appointment or or to talk more about that thank you do I have a I had a

102couple things I was going to say but they're pretty well covered by everybody else I do have some practical questions so this presentation that you shared with us this evening with all the Great Links will this be available to the public or some vers of it without your notes perhaps um yes we can make this available well is I just curious to know what your plan was and and basically what are the practical steps in accessing this curriculum also a couple of that mayos are AV all right okay one we have okay that's good to know yeah we'll definitely check the the links the supplemental videos should all be able to be accessed I saw some people taking pictures of the screens and things like that so they should be able to be accessed through

103just a quick YouTube search um and everything in terms of the teacher materials in terms of slides that will be accessed by by teachers in the classroom with students those things will be available during the public review process here at Liberty um did you want to say something about the slides um just that we will the the supplemental video lists we will make sure that that is avail available readily um at Liberty um and you know can I mean they're just they're all YouTube videos you can just Google it too sure you know so and this meeting is recorded on YouTube yes yeah right but the links on this presentation aren't NE necessarily available so the last question I had is earlier you you and I Kristen I think had a conversation about a feedback

104form for the public is that somewhere yeah it's um it's in my head currently got it okay I just out of I will I will finish uh making that and uh we'll get that out the same for the body safe detox yeah yep super okay no pressure we we'll work out the details but I appreciate that it's going to be available and if there are any little glitches early on we'll we we want people to see the curriculum in the community not yeah we really do exactly so if there are any issues that come up we'll resolve them as quickly as possible and that's where your your email address comes in really handy so you're not allowed to go vacation this summer uh so if you would like to oh could you do my favor

105Brad or and get the forms like to find out who's who's on the list if you want to sit down somebody over there does Jackie thank you the fabulous Jackie Martin does now we will start with the students although Ari has graduated so technically yeah you're still a student um I oh we have an m hre uh oh there you are and you are a student I am a student thank you oh are we gonna well kind of adhere to the three minutes just a quick note about public comments just for you all thank you uh that a member of the public can address this seab briefly and the board for up to three minutes request or request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting please note that students will be given

106priority to speak uh the first uh Port well there's no first portion here um so individuals addressing the scab should take into consideration the rules of common courtesy please the public participation a portion of the meeting cannot be used to make personal attacks on an seab member a board of education member a district employee or student or superintendent thank you thank you so much good evening my name is I'm HRI and I'm I'm a student at Seline High School Seline sex head program does a great job explaining how a couple with sperm and an egg have a baby what it does currently Miss is how non-heterosexual couples can have kids even before we're teenagers we know how babies are made but that idea always left me stumped because I want to have kids but what

107if I'm with another female I didn't appreciate having to do the research and asked my mom about how this would work many of my friends felt the same some of them are l less comfortable asking their parents or adults in their life so I was left to explain to them their options this isn't fair I don't mind at all explaining this to my friends but I shouldn't have to it isn't fair that heterosexual couples have it all laid out for them in school and have no questions left to ask while students like myself have to recruit Google to teach us our version of that day's lesson I agree that it is crucial that all students receive sufficient sex education no matter their sex sexuality or gend gender identity I also agree that the curriculum should

108use fewer terms like girls and boys or women and men because not all people with vaginas or that can become pregnant identify as girls or women and people that have penises and have erections identify as boys or men many teachers use these terms and is incredibly harmful to students like me who do not identify with those terms in terms of consent and sexual harassment and assault I support that we must teach younger students as young as Elementary School that parts of their body are not for anyone else to touch or ask to see and if inappropriate things are happening encourage students to reach out to a trusted adult in opposition to Lesson 12 of the eth grade proposed curriculum I believe teens should have access to Links resources and even locations where they can get

109safe free and Anonymous STI testing Most teens are not comfortable or safe telling an adult or even a peer that they would like to get tested for an STI these resources allow students to be their safest and healthiest in terms of STI another thing I believe we must reassess is how we approached sexed during covid we cannot again try to stuff a missed year into the next year's curriculum that was how my health class was attempted to function in sixth grade I missed much of both fifth and sixth grade sex ed classes and therefore didn't have much information until I was taught again in ninth grade this year this included information about consent including the legal age of consent we must put something in place to better teach students their sex ed course if we

110have another asynchronous year like 2020 or 2021 thank you for listening thank you so much next up is Ari Hayward Alum proud alum hi I am Ari Hayward and yes I am a prum um I am also a former cab member um and as a student my experience with Seline sex ad curriculum was um uh it was not very informative uh it was at best Antiquated and at worse than urate and um un inclusive the information on topics such as as HIV AIDS was also inaccurate and there was also no inclusive material for um transgender or uh non-binary such as myself um or any other gender diverse students um and I was very I guess affected by that because yeah we shouldn't be able to have to teach ourselves um having bncf I know the

111members worked very hard um and to bring the most updated inclusive materials to Seline students and I just want to thank them um for their hard work um and dedication because I know the next sine students to take sexed um like my sister uh will very much benefit from the fruits of their labor and um sex education is like so needed um it's also to make sure that we don't feel gross about ourselves because I know as someone who I guess does not um I am nonbinary and I guess I felt gross with myself from not being able to learn properly so I hope this is accepted thank you very much next up is uh Tiffany Alexander proud parent and parent of nlm yes proud parent parent of an Alum and proud parent of a

112fourth grader on her way to Heritage um so first of all I'm super excited about the curriculum because um one of the things my my kid talked to me about when they took sexed was uh they they sat there they had a Biology book and there were some questions to answer and they read the material to themselves and they just wrote down to themselves the the answers that that they were going to put down and that was pretty much it there was no actual discussion or anything like that and it is hard as a parent to attempt to have these conversations some kids are more comfortable some parents are more comfortable and some kids aren't so we are really Reliant upon the school to do this um so I'm really grateful to see such a

113comprehensive curriculum that starts at a very young age which really is especially when it comes to consent really important um I also noticed on the screen it wasn't mentioned but I noticed it that there was discussion I think it was around 7th grade talking about toxic relationships which I also really appreciated I think kids need to have an understanding of what a relationship should be and what it isn't and I think frequently watching television and and they don't um unfortunately not even every child has a a a good role model for what a healthy relationship is at home so I think that having those discussions will help make them safer for the future um I did want to know when does the discussion and this might have been answered and I might of Mystic so

114was a lot of material when does the discussion about um sex trafficking happen did that happen in seventh grade 8th grade I I might have missed that um I guess that would be one thing I want to see is by Middle School that should be covered um and then I appreciate the idea of had not separating the kids and having them all um I think that the point was made that because kids have been separated that men be boys become men who don't care about how women feel and what we go through and I think that that's the whole purpose is that by putting them together they will learn to care and to have empathy and for it not to be foreign or weird and then women don't have to be embarrassed about their bodies

115um in front of the men that they choose to be with or just men that they're friends with um a lot of kids go to school and they end up getting made fun of by a lot of boys who don't understand what's going on and I think that would cut down on a lot of that so again I just really want to thank the members of cab I thought it was great I'm really excited and um looking forward to what Summerland can have to experience at Heritage thank you is that an easily addressed question about when sex sex trafficking shows up in the curriculum if it is I'm I'm happy just to get a quick if it's not if it takes longer then we'll pass on we can why you move on and okay Dr

116David Hayward thank you um I'd like to just kind of I guess Echo a lot of the comments that we've already heard about um what a positive uh step forward this uh new curriculum seems to be as as the parent of an incoming fourth grader um this is something that um is is very timely from my perspective and I noticed uh you know as I was looking at the the citations for when the current curriculum uh was developed you know my my for grader was born in 2015 I think all of the all of the uh current curriculum was developed long before that and and most of it even before my now uh graduate was born in 2006 so long since time for an update and um I'm very very pleased to see um you

117know something that's very uh thoughtful in terms of um both inclusivity and in terms of um bringing in important Concepts like like uh consent you know if there's one thing I could say it's that I don't think that one week a year is is uh does Justice to this uh important set of of Concepts it would be nice to to to see this worked somehow into uh something that could be done bit by bit throughout the year and not just kind of pushed all into one place thanks thank you and finally uh Megan Gunderson who is a parent and seab member what we have Jackie is there one more I talk to you more as a parent than as an sea seap member but yes I was um I had expressed concerns in our community

118uh committee meetings about just about target audience I don't disagree with any of the information it's obviously based in science and best practice but as a mom of many all four of my kids are different and so what I would have chosen for one at one age I may not choose for another so I still appreciate the fact that Selen has an opt out program I understand that it's mandated by Michigan law however having it be a non-confrontational or non um what's the word I want to use negative reaction when somebody chooses to adopt their child you know as a parent and a primary educator of my children I like to have that as a backdoor option if I choose to use it um I did want to highlight that um I appreciate that you

119live stream today's meeting um which was nice and I'd like to see that more often just because it's hard for some parents because of daycare or school issues or distance or Michigan Avenue traffic to try to get here on time I thought that that was a night a nice ad so that people can't say well I didn't know or when would I see it or how can I find it I think the more open and honest and transparent we are the better off people are in general um in support of Miss peer's comment about Michigan law respecting the right of parents to choose for their children um I wanted to highlight part part of the Michigan state code um that's MCL on a second 380 something and I'll find the rest of it but it

120specifically states that um a pupil can be excused without um penalty or loss of academic credit since sex said's not a requirement for the state of Michigan but what I did notice as a a parent of a middle schooler this year and as a high schooler and in the past since transferring at this District there's this alternate assignment right now for kids whose parents opt them out which is punitive and it's has a negative connotation and it's a lot of work it's not a 20-minute amaz video it's like at least in the high school it's a big paper and it it feels like those kids are being penalized because their parents are making the choice for their family so I would like for you to revisit that in your operationalization or in your scope of

121sequence of how you would address not penalizing a kid because their parents are making what they think and Which is far within their rights to make a decision for their children thank you thank you I appreciate that and I know that Miss Davis is working on a response right away um we have one more from Tran thank you oh there we go the green light I've heard so much about it on YouTube um so I do have a couple questions about the program for the seab I don't know if you can answer these today because they're a little bit they might take a little bit longer but one of the things that was said was that um the greatest changes were in the grade 8 curriculum and listening to the program really not knowing what

122was taught in grade eight previously I guess I'm wondering if you could kind of Flesh that out a little bit in terms of what some of those changes are and then the other thing um which was something I was thinking about today on a walk was uh not so much exactly this but partly this is getting away from the dry biology is what I heard and I was thinking about whether it was biology whether it was sociology which is better should they be both and going towards something socioecon uh socio um emotional and I guess I was hoping you could provide a few examples of what that means how that uh some examples in the curriculum of how those changes have taken place and that's basically it thank you well I think that this thanks

123Tran I think that that um if this is for an article that maybe you can get a longer answer from from the team uh otherwise it'll probably be covered in the next uh session the next hearing thank you well I want to thank oh oh oh oh yes you were going to answer that one probing question which I've already oh sex trafficking thank you right just to the question about when the uh concept or topic of sex trafficking was discussed at the middle school in our current scope and sequence it is not uh addressed at all at the middle school so the I guess option um based on where we're at now is that potentially including lesson five which is in the Middle School curriculum but that was removed from our recommended so scope and

124sequence so it's currently not in there at any grade level um or right I mean we would have to make that decision as well so I think you know seventh or eth or something like that probably but um and then the I guess the other option would be similar to what we did with the ation about intercourse removing that aspect from the Upper Elementary lesson where it was introduced and moving it to sixth grade uh sex trafficing is a topic in one of the Upper Elementary lessons that we removed specifically lesson eight in the Upper Elementary we could remove that topic and move it into uh into the middle school or to keep it out all together again interesting question the question was why why was it removed uh you had mentioned that you didn't

125think that it was know like yeah so we again it we were kind of split as a committee um several members felt strongly about including it specifically as Michigan's is you know kind of a hub for sex trafficking and it's a topic that several committee members felt strongly about having that conversation with students and equipping them with uh skills like an escape plan and uh avoiding those risky situations others felt like it was uh to have a whole lesson especially was potentially overwhelming for students at the middle school level well thank you I appreciate that I just want to say thank you then to everyone who showed up this evening everyone who's watching online or watching tomorrow uh not right now uh I also wanted to thank if there are any again seab or cab

126sorry members here in the room thank you thank you thank you for all the excellent hard work you did on this um I spent a lot of time looking at this material and I'm looking forward to looking at it over the next two months in a more leisurely way and I know the rest of the community is as well and the qu thank you for figuring out a way to to get a public feedback we'll uh we may end up making a public uh statement about that once the form is solidified because we do want to hear from everybody great well thank you very much I I guess I get to I'd like to uh adjourn without objection i' like to adjourn this meeting at 7:54 I'm hearing no objection so boom thank you so

127much