Sex Ed Is 'Age-Appropriate' At Central Regional, Superintendent Says

BERKELEY, NJ — While the Central Regional School District adopted their new curriculum in an August Board of Education meeting, concerns regarding the teachers were brought up at the October meeting.

After the meeting had officially adjourned, a parent brought up concerns regarding the content of the curriculum, which ended up sparking arguments between the Board and the concerned father. It went on for several minutes post-meeting, with increasing tensions between the parties.

Superintendent Tom Parlapanides said that everything being taught was "age-appropriate" and that parents could opt students out per week based on what the lesson was.

The 2020 Comprehensive Health and Physical Education standards have caused controversy around the state along with nearby communities like Lacey, Barnegat and Toms River.

You can find the entirety of Central Regional's health curriculum, along with excusal letters, on their website here.

In August, the Board also sent a resolution to state officials asking for "common sense" approaches to education, specifically regarding the curriculum, according to the Sept. 15 meeting minutes.

"We are writing this resolution to the State regarding the new sex and health curriculum, which many of our parents and staff have expressed to us as morally unethical and altering the natural biological teaching of health education," the resolution reads. You can read the text in its entirety in the meeting minutes.

Parlapanides said that the most controversial subjects would not be taught, but the district must align with the state standards and teach to them in order to not lose $4 million in funding. "I hate moving backwards," Parlapanides said.

The father had voiced concerns regarding certain material in the standards involving things like teaching anal sex to middle schoolers.

Douglas Corbett, the district's assistant superintendent, explained that the standards were handed down by the state, and the curriculum had to align with those standards.

Another concern brought up was a survey that had been given out to middle schoolers, asking students about their struggles such as divorce, alcoholism in the family or anxiety. One choice on the survey was about identifying as LGBTQ.

The result of the survey were groups formed to give students resources, it was explained. But the same parent said that it was "dumped on our children," and his child was pulled out without his knowledge, which Parlapanides said was not supposed to happen. He said that there were supposed to be consent forms brought home and signed by parents, but this father said that was not the case for his family.

Parlapanides insisted that the school provides for all of its students, including LGBTQ students. He brought up how teenagers have high suicide rates, especially LGTBQ-identifying teens, and said that they need an avenue.

"Is the alternative not giving children a choice?" said the Board's attorney, Christopher Dasti. Dasti took issue with the father's characterization of the survey as forcing LGBTQ onto students, when it was only asking about it, he said.

Parlapanides repeatedly asked the father to speak with him privately, but the arguments and shouting continued.

The meeting came to a second, and final, end after the Board decided to cut the fighting off and allow the discussions to continue later and privately.