Rally Against New State Sex Education Mandates Coming To Camden County

CHERRY HILL, NJ — Parents who are against the new sex education mandates put forth by the State of New Jersey are invited to a rally being held this week in Cherry Hill, organizers of the event said.

The state's 66-page curriculum guide contains mandates that include teachers talking about masturbation and gender identity to elementary students, as well as pregnancy signs and pregnancy options, including abortion, by the end of eighth grade.

Gov. Murphy has previously said these new sexual education mandates are current and in line with what children and teens are exposed to already outside the classroom.

However, these mandates have come under criticism in multiple Garden State school districts for containing language that some parents in the Cinnaminson Township School District previously called "disgusting" and "appalling."

"We believe that parents have the exclusive authority to speak with their children about sexual content — not the government nor schools," Pnina Mintz, a parent in the Cherry Hill Public School District, told Patch.

Thus, she said the rally seeks to "educate parents about child exposure to age-inappropriate sexual content in the new 'Sex Education Standards for New Jersey Government K-12 schools.' The proposed sexual content in the curriculum seems to be illegal under U.S. Federal child
exploitation and obscenity laws."

The rally will be held Thursday at 6 p.m. at Croft Farm in Cherry Hill, according to Mintz. A similar rally was held in Middlesex County this past weekend, according to Mintz.

The school board of the Cherry Hill Public Schools is awaiting comments and a recommendation from a subcommittee before deciding whether or not the new sexual education mandates — which fall under the district's Family Life curriculum — should be implemented, District Superintendent Joseph Meloche told Patch.

Those comments and the recommendation on the new sexual education mandates are expected to be made public during a subcommittee meeting on Aug. 30, he said. The "earliest" the school board could vote on whether or not to follow those comments and the recommendation is Sept. 6, he said.

Although Sept. 6 is also the district's first day of school, the new sexual education mandates, if adopted, would still be taught during the 2022-23 school year, according to Meloche.

"I don't expect that any lessons will be delivered on September 6th in the Family Life curriculum on the first day of school," he said during the interview. "I don't expect really that any lessons will be delivered that week on the Family Life curriculum."

Parents who do not want to wait until the school board's vote on the Family Life curriculum is taken can contact the district to utilize a long-standing option, according to Meloche.

"The family life curriculum is one of the few things that families have the opportunity to opt their children out of when they are enrolled in a public school district," he said. "That opportunity has existed for years ... and will continue to exist."

Children whose parents exercise this option would be "provided alternative lessons in an alternative location," Meloche said.

This story contains reporting by Carly Baldwin.

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