In response to final recommendations from the district’s Student Health Advisory Committee, Dripping Springs ISD’s board of trustees voted to approve the Baylor Scott & White sex education curriculum for district middle schoolers at the board’s June 24 meeting.

Similar to at previous board meetings that included discussions of the sex education curriculum, a number of parents and community members spoke about the issue during public forum. Some supported the Baylor Scott & White curriculum, while others expressed concern that the curriculum is not comprehensive enough, particularly in terms of inclusivity towards LGBTQIA students.

“I can tell you as a former teacher that we are on the front lines of giving scientific and fact-based information to teens,” said Whitney Miller, a district parent who cited several studies indicating that students are reluctant to speak with their parents about sex. She said it was the school's responsibility to ensure students received the most comprehensive education possible.

Other speakers questioned the process and transparency by which SHAC had arrived at its recommendations, which were brought to the board after months of deliberation and multiple rounds of community feedback. However, one SHAC member, Melissa Capps, also spoke, and expressed frustration with the board’s role in the process.

“If [the curriculum] is not accepted, it’s merely due to the personal agendas of certain board members,” Capps said.

Superintendent Bruce Gearing brought forth the recommendation of the Baylor Scott & White seventh grade curriculum, which SHAC amended to include three eighth grade chapters, which cover topics of sex and the law, sexually transmitted infections and contraception.

According to Gearing, the board had encouraged the committee to hold further meetings to discuss the scope and sequence of the curriculum after SHAC first voted to approve the Baylor Scott & White materials. Gearing further recommended that the district move to an opt-out, rather than opt-in, system for students whose parents might want their children to sit out of a particular lesson or the curriculum at large.

Some board members still expressed concern with the curriculum. Joanna Day, the district’s newest trustee, said she found the Baylor Scott & White curriculum to be less geared toward student engagement than the current curriculum, Big Decisions, with teachers “merely reading a script.”

“I worry that we’re not holding ourselves to the goals we established [in the district’s strategic plan] in this curriculum because it’s a stickier topic then some of the other decisions that we make,” Day said.

Ultimately, the new curriculum passed 5-2, with Day and Barbara Stroud voting against.