Happening across America? Massachusetts unveiling radical statewide “health” curriculum for all grades.

Public comments on the Mass. document accepted through Aug. 28.

Schools to meddle in mental health, normalize LGBT identities, deliver explicit “sex ed” & abortion info.

Document calls for student discussions of trauma, abuse, sexual consent, rape, sex trafficking, & discrimination.

State Depts. of Education have become radicalized from coast to coast.

August 21, 2023

What begins in blue states like Massachusetts and California soon shows up everywhere else!

Parents across the country have been seething as they’ve found out how their schools have been propagandizing their children on homosexuality, transgenderism, “diversity,” and phony “anti-racism” and social justice (“equity”) ideas. But that was just the beginning.

Parents are in for another huge shock. The Left has much more planned for young minds. In recent years, even in “red” states, the state Departments of Education have become frighteningly radicalized.

Watch for “health education” mandates coming on: diagnosing and training your children on mental health; graphic sexuality lessons; pro-abortion messages and resources; inculcating intimate relationship fears; social justice and “anti-discrimination” messages; promoting the idea of “trusted adults” outside the home; and more intense LGBT indoctrination in lower grades.

Like the LGBT agenda and Critical Race Theory in schools, this new direction in “health education” started in deep blue states. But building on that foothold, it is spreading into schools in the most conservative parts of America. The education establishment everywhere is on board.

A radical new document in Mass. reveals the direction for the country

For years, MassResistance has taken the lead warning about the dangerous policies of the Massachusetts education bureaucracy. It was here that graphic sex education, GLSEN and GSAs, and support for transgenderism were pioneered in schools.

In June 2023, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) unveiled the draft of its new “Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Curriculum Framework” document.

It will completely replace the 1999 Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework which was quite radical in its time, and MassResistance wrote about extensively. (Also, in 2013, the Mass. DESE issued guidelines on policies supporting “transgender” students.)

How radical is this new document? Normally when the DESE puts out a set of curriculum guidelines no one pays much attention. But they knew that this one would send some shock waves out, so they prepared for that.

On June 27, 2023, the DESE Board decided to put the document out to “public comment” for 60 days – until August 28. We’ve never seen that done for anything from the DESE. (Our sense is that the Board will unanimously approve it anyway.)

A few days earlier, on June 21, 2023, the governor’s office put out a special press release to introduce the “Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Curriculum Framework.” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is well known as a radical lesbian activist, and it shows here. Her press release lists the rainbow of topics covered in the new “Framework” document - that schools should now be teaching children:

The nature of the document is certainly reflected in the “statements of support” in the press release from the Mass. Legislature’s “LGBTQ+ Caucus,” other prominent “gay” legislators, representatives of local LGBT organizations, the head of Planned Parenthood and “Reproductive Equity Now,” and the presidents of the Boston Teacher’s Union and the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

Note that this is officially just “guidelines” for schools. But don’t be fooled. The clear intent down the line is for the legislature to mandate these guidelines. (They tried to do that a few times with the 1999 document, but we were able to derail that. However, the legislature is far more left-wing now.)

Public comments should be submitted from sensible Mass. residents!

Massachusetts residents can comment – and they should! – by either filling out a survey or emailing comments to: Kristen McKinnon at chpef@mass.gov. (We know that the leftists are sending in their comments.) The deadline is Monday, August 28, 2023.

A lot of bad ideas emanate from this building: the Mass. Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

The radical new definition of “health”

You’ll note that the language is well-crafted throughout to appear serious, professional, and non-threatening to parents. But this is, in fact, a compendium of extremely dangerous material.

Schools that can barely teach the basics to children are now going to force kids to discuss these explosive topics. It’s unreal how many of the proposed “health” issues center on sexual activity, sexually-transmitted disease, pregnancy, sexual consent, gender identity, sexual orientation, discrimination, abuse, bullying, and stress.

It’s no wonder young children and teens are exhibiting higher levels of depression every year. They’re stuck in schools lacking academic rigor but full of social rot. Resulting student distress is then used to open up this new focus in the schools: mental health. (And the situation will just continue to get worse!)

So “health” education has been expanded beyond healthy eating, exercise, and proper care for illness to include a focus on “mental health” and so-called “social-emotional learning” (SEL). The new Mass. health framework “Vision” statement explains:

The student’s mental, emotional, and social health can be addressed in all “content areas” and will include concern for “various student populations”:

For example, biology class could include a discussion of “gender”; or math problems could include racial “equity” messaging. Racial/ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ students will get special attention and support.

Notably, the document links to the CDC’s SEL-style recommendations, called “whole school, whole community, whole child,” as guiding the new direction for Massachusetts:

The CDC explains this approach includes: “Social and emotional climate. Health services [school personnel help coordinate]. Counseling, psychological and social services.” The National Association of State Boards of Education is promoting this approach nationally.

Another new direction (and guiding principle) in the Framework is a recognition of “trauma” in some children’s lives, and their need for a safe, supporting space (school):

The idea of “trauma-sensitive” and “safe and supportive” schools reveals the education establishment’s attitude that schools are equally, if not more, concerned about a child’s safety and emotional support than parents. (And, that the home may not be a safe place.)

The new “equity” emphasis relates to pushing ideas on supposed discrimination (re: race, ethnicity, economic status, and LGBTQ+ identities). This opens the door to political propaganda:

Throughout the document, sexual orientation and gender identity are treated as valid and legitimate “identifications” which cannot be disputed or challenged in any way. (No alternative moral or scientific perspective is mentioned.) Likewise, systemic discrimination and inequities are presented as fact.

Students will be given resources for support in pursuing LGBT identities, STD testing and treatment, birth control, or abortion, and instructed in how to get help from others if their parents are not in agreement.

Other topics to be addressed in the classroom include rape, sexual consent, sex trafficking, sexual abuse, trauma, domestic violence, dating violence, illicit drugs, community standards, and public and school policy.

Excerpts with some of the specific topics to be covered can be seen in this attached document.

For example, in PreK-Grade 2 they teach children to understand gender-role stereotypes, that "gay" families are the same as normal families, and "strategies for managing stress." And more.

In Grades 3-5 they teach about "self-advocacy" for their gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations. They are taught to "describe the differences between biological sex and gender identity. " They are also taught how one should deal with stress, anger, fear, grief, sadness, anxiety, stress, hopelessness. And more. In Grades 6-8 they begin to focus on sexual activity and a myriad of related topics..

It is horrific to imagine the classroom discussions that will be prompted by these often disturbing adult topics which will clearly hyper-sexualize young students. This material simply has no place in schools.

What groups were consulted to create this?

Who gave input for the new Framework?

The process to develop the 2023 Framework began in the summer of 2018. Interviews and input from a variety of so-called stakeholders helped to develop and answer questions that guided the review process … [p. 8]

Who were the “stakeholders” and “content advisors”? Pro-abortion groups (Planned Parenthood), groups pushing graphic sex ed (Advocates for Youth), local sex educators, the major SEL curriculum provider (CASEL), radical feminists and rape counseling groups, racial grievance groups (“equity” specialists), LGBTQ radicals (Mass. Comm on LGBTQ Youth), physicians from Boston Children’s Hospital (in agreement with BCH’s gender clinic), etc. (See pp 3-5.)

Sources of curriculum materials - from activist groups

While the Mass. Health Framework document does not include links to actual curriculum materials, clearly the cited “stakeholders” would be the recommended providers.

SEL (social-emotional learning), social justice, equity, or anti-racism curricula materials will be recommended by activist groups, such as Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Possible curriculum resources specific to equity and “anti-racism” (including from the Southern Poverty Law Center) are here.

From the CASEL website.

For specific “comprehensive sexuality education” (CSE) curricula that may be adopted to fulfill the Mass. Health Framework recommendations, see the overview at Protect Child Health Coalition, here & here.

Two commonly used CSE curricula are:

• Advocates for Youth, Rights, Respect, Responsibility: Download complete content. Analysis here.
• Planned Parenthood, Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works. See analyses for 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, and High School.

The range of comprehensive sex ed curricula being pushed into our schools is a nightmare.

The pro-family group Protect Child Health Coalition has analyzed most of the CSE curricula commonly used in the U.S.

And much of this also ultimately comes from the worldwide push by the far-left activist United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO (see excerpts) and World Health Organization WHO to implement graphic CSE.)

All of this is what state education officials across the country want pushed on your children.

Final Thoughts

The fact that virtually none of these "sources" are actual disinterested medical groups, but instead are ideologically driven, is another alarming issue for parents. It's widely believed that this causes more mental health problems among kids, more sexual and gender problems, and more behavioral problems.

Unfortunately, CSE combined with the SEL (or “whole child”) approach (which incorporates mental health and politicized messages) along with the LGBT/gender ideology is already in many state Departments of Education across the country.

Usually at the state level, it is initially presented as a “guidelines” or “framework” document and not yet mandated on locales. But the mandates will follow if it’s not derailed.

All of us must do what we can to resist this poison at the state and local level!

It’s happening around the country: Missouri is incorporating similar social-emotional health guidelines (with help from the CDC).