A sex education programme teaching children about masturbation and porn has been scrapped. The Warwickshire County Council scheme sparked opposition for being too graphic with young people. The All About Me (AAM) programme sought to teach children about sex.
However, parents claimed their children were being exposed to explicit sexual content that promoted “experimental transgender ideas in school.” They also said it “encouraged masturbation” and encouraged an unhealthy view of pornographic material.
The programme was originally envisaged to “support young people’s understanding of healthy relationships and to enable them to build positive and safe relationships as they grow and develop into adults”, according to the council.
Warwickshire County Council suspends sex education website after telling girl of 12 it’s ‘natural to get horny and watch something that turns you on’ This Morning viewers repulsed by Eamonn and Ruth’s excruciating toe-sucking chat. But some parents and campaigners claimed the material clashed with traditional family values. An accompanying website, named Respect Yourself, aimed at teenagers and young adults also met with a barrage of condemnation.
One woman from Leamington Spa said when the plans were unveiled she was ‘horrified’ when she saw the online content. The mum, who did not want to be named, said: “At first I thought it looked fine. Then I started to read it and some of it is really quite disturbing.
“I thought ‘is this what the council is telling my kids, that porn is fine and there’s no such thing as porn addiction?'”
Hundreds of people signed a petition calling for the website to be taken down. Respect Yourself was subsequently taken offline by the council pending the outcome of an independent review, which is yet to deliver its findings.
However, the schools programme is being replaced with an “information and signposting offer to schools”, according to council documents. Essentially, this will follow the Department for Education’s new national materials and resources on sex education, which are still being developed.
The Christian Institute, a nondenominational campaign group, had threatened legal action against the council if it failed to address its concerns about AAM.
The group claimed: “Lesson materials encouraged masturbation and included gratuitously graphic sexual images yet made no reference to marriage, contrary to national requirements and despite the lessons concerned not being classed as sex education.”
In a press release, the group quoted two parents from Warwickshire who spoke under anonymity to welcome the decision. One said: “This is not before time. My wife and I were deeply troubled by the explicit nature of some of the All About Me materials – and the ideology underpinning them.
“We don’t want our children being taught about masturbation, explicit sexual content or experimental transgender ideas in school. For a long time, it felt like the council didn’t want to listen to the concerns of many reasonable parents; we’re glad and relieved that they have now withdrawn this programme.”
Another parent said: “I’m delighted. These materials were never suitable for children. They always seemed to be more concerned with indoctrination than education. “We’ll have to see what the Education Department come up with. “Hopefully it will be a lot better than All About Me.”
John Denning, Education Officer at The Christian Institute, called for swift action to ensure parents are aware of the changes. Mr Denning said: “Warwickshire’s climbdown will come as welcome news to hundreds of concerned parents. The highly explicit imagery and one-sided ideology of All About Me has no place in Primary Relationships Education.
“Schools are obviously facing a challenging time at the moment. But as soon as they can, they must consult with parents on a different approach to teaching RSE which complies with the law. As with other teaching in state schools, it must be balanced, objective and critical, not pushing particular controversial views such as transgender ideology.”
In a Cabinet report, the council notes that an independent review of AAM has been carried out by the Sex Education Forum, part of the National Children’s Bureau, and “approves the replacement of it with an information and signposting offer to schools.”
The document states: “The offer will be in line with the Department of Education’s national materials and resources to support schools to meet their statutory requirements under the new Relationships & Sex Education regulations.”
The review praised AAM as “a comprehensive primary school programme, informed by international evidence” and found “the programme of lessons is admirable in spanning all primary years.”
However, the report noted that the programme predates new Government guidance and regulations, and would need updating to fully comply with the guidelines.
– BirminghamLIVE