A lot is changing in Virginia now that parents have started paying attention. McAwful previously vetoed this legislation.
Another win for parental rights in Virginia
Talk about a difference in tone. In 2016, then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) vetoed legislation that would have given parents advance warning when public schools expose their children to sexually explicit content. Now, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has signed similar legislation into law. The move should come as a relief to Virginia families like mine because parents no longer have to worry about their children being bombarded with inappropriate material.
The legislation requires the Virginia Department of Education to develop by July 31 model standards whereby schools must provide parents with notification of any sexually explicit content within their instructional materials. In addition, schools must permit “the parent of any student to review instructional material that includes sexually explicit content and provide, as an alternative, non-explicit instructional material and related academic activities to any students whose parent so requests.”
Thanks to this legislation, when Virginia students return to the classroom this fall, parents will have the right to review any sexually explicit material in advance — and they’ll have the right to opt their children out of any instruction or lessons that include such material. Most Virginians might consider these types of safeguards a common-sense protection for the rights of parents and something on which all politicians and educators should agree. But they don’t know the modern left.