The Capitol Building is seen Monday, Jan. 8, 2018 in Olympia.
OLYMPIA — By one vote, a House committee on Thursday approved a bill to require public school districts to teach comprehensive sexual health education to K-12 students beginning with the 2022-23 school year.
SB 5395 would be phased in over two years, with the topic taught to students in grades six through 12 beginning with the 2021-2022 school year and to all students a year later. Backers of the bill say it's designed with equity in mind, to ensure all students get the opportunity to learn. Several opponents say sex education should be restricted to grades seven through 12.
The bill states that the definition of comprehensive sexual health education for K-3 would be social-emotional learning. Supporters of the measure said that's already taught at most schools and involves learning about healthy friendships and protecting one's personal space from unwanted touching.
After the House Education Committee voted 9-8 to approve the bill, it's headed to the full House for a vote. The Senate already has approved it, but will have to agree with changes made by the House or hash out a final version.
"Our children are facing a very different world than the one in which we were raised," said state Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle. "The type of advertising or even the type of fare that is available on commercial television today would have been censored in my day.
"And so it becomes even more important, I think, for our educational system to focus on what it does, which is providing knowledge and skills for students to navigate into the future, both the one that we find ourselves in with the 'Me Too' movement that we would not have imagined even five years ago -- but the future that we still can't imagine that is on the horizon," Santos added.
Democrats who control the House defeated 11 amendments that Republicans offered.
An amendment from state Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, would have made it optional for school districts to teach comprehensive sexual health education to K-12 students.
"We have a variety of communities across this state who don't all adhere to the same standards when it comes to some of these topics that are going to be discussed in this type of curriculum," said state Rep. Chris Corry, a Yakima Republican who supported the amendment in part because it would give school districts more flexibility.
"I think [the amendment] also will have the potential to reverse many harmful effects on our school districts. You're going to see communities, I believe, being torn apart by this," he added.
State Rep. Lisa Callan, D-Issaquah, opposed the amendment, saying parents have a voice in the curriculum that school boards adopt and have an "opt-out" option if they don't want their children to be taught comprehensive sexual health education.
"If our students aren't understanding how to do a healthy consent relationship; how even at the youngest age, understanding if it's OK to be picked up and hugged and being able to say no. Those are things that are just imperative ... and we have to make sure we've got local control options built into the system," she said.
The committee voted 10-7 to defeat Harris' amendment to give school districts the option of providing comprehensive sexual health education to K-12 students.
An amendment from state Rep. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley, would have removed the requirement to provide comprehensive sexual health education to students in K-6.
"I think the mandate from this bill requires too much for our youngest children. It does not prohibit at all what we have been teaching younger kids for years, which I thought was always very appropriate to them," he said.
State Rep. Laurie Dolan, D-Olympia, said she taught what's in the bill as a first-grade teacher in Spokane from 1973 through 1978.
"We talked about things like how to keep themselves healthy, safe and happy. We talked about things like how to be a good friend to someone else. We role-played how to be a good friend," said Dolan. She also said first-graders must be taught to not talk to strangers and if they ever feel unsafe or in danger, they need to go to an adult that they trust and whom they know will help them.
The committee voted 9-8 to reject the amendment that would have removed the requirement to provide comprehensive sexual health education to students in K-6.
Explaining her vote against the bill, state Rep. Michelle Caldier, R-Port Orchard, said the Legislature is not listening to the majority of state residents on the issue.
"There's a huge push-back on teaching sexual education curriculum in kindergarten. There's only one approved curriculum on [the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction] website and I wouldn't want my children or grandchildren to be taught that," she said.
State Rep. Monica Stonier, the Vancouver Democrat who sponsored the House version of the bill, said the bill responds to what students want.
"Students in my community have asked us to stand up against normalizing sexual assault. They've asked us to understand that as an LGBTQ-plus teen, when you don't see yourself reflected in the learning environment around you, it does far more harm than good; that avoiding conversations about who we are, how relationships work, and how our bodies work does far more harm than good. And I would say the suicide rates in those teens are proof that that is the case," she said.
After the committee vote, Kimberly Wendt, a Tacoma resident who is opposed to the bill, said she was disappointed.
"What people don't understand is that parents are not against teaching sex ed in an appropriate, scientific manner. But comprehensive sex ed is actually a worldwide movement and it has a different agenda. The agenda is to teach your child that they are sexual by birth. That is why it must be mandated with a totalitarian fist to get parents to comply," said Wendt, who is a member of the group Informed Parents of Washington.
Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest praised the House Education Committee for approving the bill.
"The fact remains, sexual health education is overwhelmingly supported by a bipartisan majority of Washingtonians who want young people to get the information they need, including parents and young people themselves," said Courtney Normand, the group's Washington state director. "Planned Parenthood has connected with thousands of students, teachers, and families over the past two years who support sexual health education, and we are committed to making this bill a reality."
