New state sex-ed curriculum teaching second-graders about gender identity causes uproar

TRENTON, N.J. (TND) — The state of New Jersey expects to implement new sex education curriculum standards which lay out plans to teach second graders about “gender identity” and “gender role stereotypes.”

**WARNING: The contents of this story could be considered graphic by some. Read at your own discretion**

The new standards, reportedly expected to be implemented once revised curriculums from various districts across the state are approved, assert that by the end of the second grade, students should be able to “Discuss the range of ways people express their gender and how gender role stereotypes may limit behavior.”

The standards also encourage second graders to “make their own choices about how to express themselves.”

Coinciding with the new standards are alleged lesson plans meant to “provide a good sense of the resources we will be looking at towards the curriculum revision,” the Assistant Superintendent for one of the state’s school districts allegedly said, according to a concerned resident who spoke at a district school board meeting in March.

You might feel like you are a boy, you might feel like you are a girl. You might feel like you're a boy even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are 'girl' parts," a sample-lesson plan for first graders, reportedly distributed to parents at a Feb. 22 school board meeting, tells teachers to say to their students. "You might feel like you’re a girl even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are 'boy' parts. And you might not feel like you're a boy or a girl, but you’re a little bit of both. No matter how you feel, you're perfectly normal!

Another sample lesson plan, for second graders, titled “Understanding Our Bodies” teaches students to identify various parts of the male and female genitals.

So a person with a vulva has three holes between their legs and a very sensitive little area at the top called the clitoris,” the second-grade lesson plan instructs teachers to tell their students.

District officials and parents went back and forth during a Westfield New Jersey Public Schools board meeting over whether the alleged lesson plans distributed to parents were actually from the state of New Jersey and reflective of the lesson plans that would be taught to first and second graders.

According to an official speaking at the meeting, the state requires parents to be allowed to opt-out of sex-ed for their children, and such mechanisms, he said, will be implemented when the district’s new curriculum is officially adopted.

I am honestly appalled at this curriculum,” said concerned parent Maria DeMaio-Esposito, a mother of two in New Jersey, according to the New York Post.

I am debating whether to place my child in a private school if I can afford it,” she reportedly continued. “Is this curriculum really necessary? Children need to stay children. Their innocence is beautiful and I do not want their little minds filled with this very adult topic.

The National Desk reached out to the New Jersey Department of Education but did not immediately hear back before time of publication. This article will be updated if TND receives a response.