Chambana Sun

Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) recently voiced his opposition to the state's sex education curriculum.

“This sex-ed curriculum is despicable and has no place in our classrooms,” he posted on Facebook. “Parents need to stand up against this nonsense, call their school board officials, and demand that they opt-out.”

In August, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law to update sex education for K-12 schools in the state. The Illinois State Board of Education worked with the National Sex Education Standards to provide topics such as gender identity and expression, consent and healthy relationships and interpersonal violence.

According to WTTW, Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) said that the standards are “age appropriate.”

The bill has been opposed by Republicans who see it as indoctrinating youths and teaching kindergarten students about sex.

The bill lays out that course material and instruction may not reflect or promote bias against any person based on the person's race, ethnicity, language, cultural background, citizenship, religion, HIV status, family structure, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, or sexual behavior.

Course material and instruction are not allowed to use gender stereotypes and must be "inclusive of and may not be insensitive or unresponsive to the needs of survivors of interpersonal violence and sexual violence."

Also, course material and instruction must be free of religious doctrine, according to the bill text from the Illinois General Assembly.

A 2019 study by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 2,618 Illinoisans had sex before turning 13 years old.

“There’s been a rise in child sex abuse scandals, sexual harassment in the workplace, sexual assault on college campuses, and bullying of LGBT-plus students and people of color,” Villivalam said. “Our youth … need medically and factually accurate information, as well as a safe environment to develop the skills they need to navigate our modern world.”

In his Facebook post, Caulkins shared a link to a Center Square story explaining that Awake Illinois reported many school districts in the state had opted out of the sex education curriculum.

“According to the organization Awake Illinois, a majority of Illinois school districts appear to be opting out. Some have adopted the curriculum. Some of the larger school districts that have done so include Rockford, Evanston, Mundelein and East St. Louis.

“Illinois is the first state to adopt the National Sex Education Standards. The New York state legislature also introduced a proposal to align their state sex education standards with the national modal, but the legislation has stalled in committee.”

Planned Parenthood argued sex education taught at an early age gives students life skills for good sexual health, and its teaching of culture and inclusion helps students develop social and emotional skills to be “empathetic” adults.