This article originally appeared here, at fairfaxtimes.com

Dear Editor,

A friend asks you for your opinion, and since you like this person, you think carefully and give your best advice. He responds, “No, that’s not the answer I wanted,” then turns and walks away, doing what he wanted to do anyway. It makes you feel used, dumb, and a bit angry – “Why’d he ask for my opinion if he didn’t care what I thought?” you wonder. 

That’s precisely what the Fairfax County School Board did, but more formally. They distributed a survey/questionnaire about teaching sex education in elementary schools, including changing to co-ed classes in 4th grade. The Board always claims they want feedback, and they got it. Eighty-five percent of the respondents said, “No, not a good idea.” A bit miffed at the results, they sent out a second questionnaire focusing on the questions they wanted to hear about, and surprisingly, the results were very similar. A lot of parents don’t even want sex education in schools, so why would they want their kids taught about what will happen to them in puberty, including body changes, at an average age of 9-10 years old – especially in mixed classes? Most kids will not have reached puberty yet. Ignoring the surveys, they moved forward with mixed-sex-ed classes in fifth grade rather than fourth. 

The Board and its cronies on FLECAC (Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee) then had the bright idea that maybe since other school systems in Virginia aren’t teaching gender identity until middle school, FCPS should “take the lead” and begin teaching even first graders that just because you’re a girl, it doesn’t mean you’re a girl, etc., etc. (transgenderism). Can you see the expression on a 6- or 7-year-old’s face when given this information? I’m sure there are other things they’d prefer to be, like a dinosaur or a princess or a mermaid or a pirate.

When I say “cronies”, it’s true. The Board Members (all Democrats) appoint the FLECAC members and choose people who parrot the Board members’ views. The FCPS policy states that “community involvement is the backbone of our system” (Policy 1710.19). Yet, no procedure has been set up to ensure diverse opinions. It makes the policy kind of hollow, doesn’t it? Therefore, what FLECAC proposes (and the Board wants) will likely happen. Not a lesson in democracy.

I can’t imagine the system being designed to be one-sided and autocratic. If we want to reflect what parents and the community want, we need to see a real presence of varied opinions. A FLECAC meeting must be like an echo chamber. Even though the Board devised and distributed the previously mentioned survey, after the second set of results, the committee debated whether the results could be trusted. So, they asked the questions they didn’t really want answers to and then ignored the outcome. 

Meanwhile, while these issues are being hotly debated within the system and the community (separately), the quality of education in terms of test scores and school ranking continues to decline. Students are placed in uncomfortable situations at school and not being challenged by academics in the woke classrooms. Is this the best way to run a school system?

Valerie Waddelove

Vienna