JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Duval County School Board needs to decide, and it needs to decide soon what health education class is going to look like.
The decision is whether or not to purchase the books necessary to teach the lessons that line up with the state statutes.
"When we show these children sex, and sex topics, 6th, 7th and 8th grade, where is the boundary," said a concerned parent at a recent school board meeting.
Where to draw the line - that's the question facing Duval County School leaders about sex education.
State statutes require the district teach abstinence as the expected standard for sexual health, while including some conversations about contraceptives and safe sex.
Those sex conversations will start in the 6th grade classrooms.
"I certainly have found some of this curriculum not only inappropriate but offensive," added another parent.
Some school board members shared some of that parent's concerns with the curriculum, so they made sure to have an open discussion about it with a spokesperson from the district's health department.
She broke down what each grade level can expect, and included a chart of STD cases for Duval County in 2021 for people ages 13-22.
It included nearly 4,000 cases of chlamydia.
"It's the reality of where we are right now as a city and as country," said School Board Chairman Darryl Willie. "We have to do all we can right now to keep our kids safe. That's what we are all about, is keeping kids safe."
If the board chooses not to adopt the curriculum materials, teachers will have no way of following state statutes.
At this point, no alternatives have been presented.
"If we don't approve the supplemental materials, that link to our state standards, we'll have to go back and figure out what that means," said Willie.
Some parents weren't as upset about the curriculum, as there were the fact that they couldn't access it to see what their students were learning.
The board chairman says they've worked over the past few weeks to make the website easier to navigate, and they are open to feedback from parents who have issues.
The board will have to vote on the class materials in a few weeks so teachers are equipped when the topics come up through the year.