COLORADO SPRINGS — The Lewis-Palmer School District 38 board made it official on its sex education curriculum moving forward. They approved two resolutions that exclude the district from the new state comprehensive sex education program passed by lawmakers. It mandates, among other things, the health needs of the LGBTQ community and teaching kids about the concept of consent.
The district calls it a local control issue and they say they are comfortable with their existing sex ed program.
HB19-1032 was signed into law this May, and goes into effect this school year. School District 38 also decided not to take the grant money to provide the comprehensive sex education program from the state. School Board Member Mark Pfoff said it's about taking a stand against the state, not sex education. "Why is the state mandating our curriculum, because that's in a violation of our state constitution... This is a constitutional issue that needs to be resolved by the Colorado Supreme Court," said Pfoff, who said he is the longest serving board member on the Lewis-Palmer School Board.
Pfoff said the vast majority of parents that reached out to him did not want the new comprehensive program taught to their children. "We already have our own, we've been teaching sex ed at Lewis-Palmer for a long time, very successfully," said Pfoff.
News 5 spoke with both state senate sponsors of the bill, before it was made law, and they said they were actually trying to give control back to local communities, because they can all choose whether or not they want to partake in the grant.
