North King News

Mindie Wirth is among a group of parents concerned about the age-appropriateness of comprehensive sexuality education, a proposed school curriculum in Washington state that would become law if passed this November.

“It introduces materials that include graphic sexual subject matter for elementary-aged children,” she told North King News.

Wirth is the mother of three school-age children and a member of the advocacy organization Parents For Safe Schools.  

Mindie Wirth | Provided

“The number of signatures gathered reflects how much this issue means to parents and local communities,” Wirth said in an interview. “Parents care about their kids and want them to be equipped. Let’s include parents in the conversation.”

Ballotpedia reports that 264,637 signatures were collected by Parents for Safe Schools to qualify to put the issue on the ballot.

ESSB 5395 was passed by the Washington Legislature in 2020 and is currently suspended due to Referendum 90, which will be voted on at the Nov. 3 election, according to media reports.

“Referendum 90 introduces materials that include graphic sexual subject matter for elementary-age children,” Wirth said. “Taking a one-size-fits-all approach does not take into account parent and community feedback on curriculum.”

Wirth further noted that, if passed, funding the referendum will be a challenge.

“This bill did not have a fiscal note. However, there is a real cost for school districts to implement it,” she said. “School district budgets are facing shortfalls this year and it will be challenging to fund both basic programs and a new mandate.”

Dr. Raul Garcia, director of the emergency medical department at Lourdes Medical Center in Yakima, Washington, is concerned that kindergarten is too early to discuss sex with a child.

“The effects that we are afraid may happen at the level of awareness that this law wants to institute is that we will create confusion in a child that is not developmentally ready to acquire such knowledge at such an early age about sex identity or sexual behavior,” Garcia told North King News.

Currently, sex education is regularly instituted in the fourth and fifth grades but the proposed curriculum is of a mature nature, according to Garcia.

“Some of what we have read in this bill, such as sexual positions and sexual acts, are probably not things a 9-year-old needs to know about,” he said. “It will lead to confusion and, potentially, promiscuity.”

A former gubernatorial candidate, Garcia further noted that the proposed curriculum is porn-like.

“We have come to a place where we overestimate the maturity and the developmental milestone of children,” he said. “We want to make children understand sexuality before they can just because some of us have gotten to a point where we are so ideologically free that we feel that our children will be as well. What is not understood is that our children are not ready for that liberal free ideology. That doesn’t mean we don’t respect or accept it, but let's teach our children at the right age.”

The proposed curriculum is from Advocates for Youth, which also is introducing sex-ed curriculum in other states.