The Killeen ISD School board meets on Tuesday to discuss a plethora of topics and their sexual education curriculum is one of them.
This is being done with the help of 40 appointed Killeen parents, and community members on a School Health Advisory Council. The council's responsibility is to ensure the Sexual Education Curriculum is a direct reflection of what the community would prefer for students' best interest.
“I think it's appropriate depending on the age, the conversation has to match their age, you don’t want to be too explicit if its children in elementary... I think it’s really important because a lot of parents don’t know how to talk to their children about it," said one Killeen Parent, Kawynia.
Angenet Wilkerson, director of student district community relations said it's important to note the guidelines.
“Everything is really driven by the state, and we just make sure that we’re implementing it with fidelity, what we do is we look what task they send out to review, and we follow those guidelines from the state," said Wilkerson.
The board will approve a roaster of volunteers who are going to serve, so what we’ll do is we’ll have public meetings all of our meetings are public.”
With Texas ranking number five in the nation for teenage pregnancies, Kawynia said this education can help them more than it can hurt.
“Instead of talking to their kids about sex they're told what not to do, so of course, that curiosity is going to cause them to go out and seek it on their own they're going to seek their own answers," said Kawynia. "So I think it's important if this information is shared with our children at school."
Teachers said the class is simply designed with the purpose to educate. Still, parents can decide whether or not they want to opt-in, according to Wilkerson. It's not mandatory for their child to take sexual education classes.
