by Ashton Goodell
Monday, April 19, 2010
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Anchorage School District wants to update its sex education guidelines.
Monday night the School Board postponed action that would update guidelines to help teachers know what they can and can't say to students about topics that fall into gray areas.
Most of the topics haven't changed, but the most controversial guideline would lay a framework to help teachers address topics like homosexuality and transgender preferences in the classroom.
It's not curriculum and doesn't say what to teach, but tells teachers to use their best judgment to answer questions.
"All we did in this revision was to acknowledge that we are aware that we have a great range of kids who identify or are questioning their own sexuality and we wanted to be more inclusive," said Sharon Vaissiere with the district.
Parents can opt children out of any unit of sex ed instruction.
