Emotional meeting held over Oak Park Unified School District's gender diversity curriculum
OAK PARK, Calif. - An emotional meeting was held Tuesday night in Oak Park where parents were fired up about the school district's new curriculum that teaches elementary school kids about transgender issues.
The district says the curriculum is meant to discourage bullying against transgender children, but some parents are outraged.
RELATED: Parents concerned over mandatory gender identity program at Oak Park elementary schools
Oak Park school district officials met with parents behind closed doors to explain their new mandatory gender diversity curriculum for K-5 students.
The district says the lessons teach elementary children about gender identity, transgender feelings, gender pronouns and a host of other topics in an effort to make the districts dozens of non-binary students feel welcomed and to prevent bullying.
Carlos Velasco is one of many Oak Park parents strongly opposing the curriculum. He has two elementary school children at the district and was at Tuesday night's closed-door meeting.
His biggest concern, according to the district, is that parents cannot opt their children out of the curriculum.
One of the parents who asked to remain anonymous said, "Unlike most of the people that were in that room I actually have a child who is a non-binary gender that is at the elementary school level. My child identifies as non-binary and that means they came to us at a very young age, when they were in kindergarten at the elementary school they expressed as though they didn’t feel they were a boy or girl that they felt like they were just them. I believe that the Oak Park school district is on the right side of history."
Oak Park School District Superintendent Dr. Tony Knight says this curriculum is absolutely necessary in today's world.
FOX 11 reporter Bill Melugin tweeted:
"I asked the Superintendent if he genuinely believes kindergarten aged children will understand lessons about gender identity. He said it won’t be complicated at that age, gave example of a red crayon that feels like it’s blue as one of the lessons."