Oil City School District wants to get more information out to parents and the public about a program in the district that triggered some questions during a school board meeting last week.
The district, following a rise in cyber bullying and sexual harassment by students at the middle school, has partnered with the PPC Violence Free Network to teach a series of lessons at the middle school on sexual harassment and sexuality.
The lessons are taught by PPC using the We Care Elementary Program, a curriculum that has been around since the 1990s.
Some school board members aired some concerns about the program last week after they had received emails from parents.
Nichole Sloss, a prevention assistant with PPC, said she and a co-worker teach four lessons to sixth-grade students and four lessons to eighth-grade students.
Sloss said the eighth-grade lessons focus on sexuality, consent, relationships and support, and the sixth-grade lessons are about boundaries, relationships and sexuality with the fourth lesson being a wrap-up lesson with an art project.
“There are no personal opinions in the lessons…it’s strictly factual information,” said Sloss, who added that students are exposed to content with these themes “on a daily basis” just from watching TV and being on social media, among other things.
“This type of education is never meant to replace conversations between parents and children. It is a tool, ultimately parents have the final say,” said Tracy Delmonaco, the school district’s Title IX coordinator. “If parents don’t want their children to participate in the lessons, we respect that.”
Sloss said the lessons are intended to make it easier for students and their parents or caregivers to begin conversations that can be uncomfortable to have.
There is no penalty for students whose parents or caregivers opt them out of the lessons, Oil City Superintendent Lynda Weller said.
The lesson on sexuality defines sexuality as an “umbrella term” encompassing biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual feelings and sexual expression, Sloss said. The lesson and work sheet that goes with it are about defining those five terms, Sloss added.
Sloss said transgenderism was not defined in the class or as a topic of discussion, and that was a concern that had been raised at last week’s board meeting.
Delmonaco said the lesson on consent never mentions sex and is about personal boundaries and “teaching kids that it is OK to be in control of their personal space.”
Sloss said consent is defined in that lesson as “mutual agreement between two people” and in the lesson they discuss various scenarios such as one student asking another to a dance.
Students sending each other inappropriate photos is a problem in schools across the country, according to Weller.
The school district has been having a “high number of incidents of sexual harassment, especially in the middle school” and cyber bullying over the last year or two, Delmonaco said.
Delmonaco added the district has an incident on record of inappropriate photos sent from one student to another involving students in fifth grade. And she said a majority of the cyber bullying seen in the district is among middle school students sending each other inappropriate photos.
The lesson about relationships is about identifying healthy relationships as opposed to unhealthy relationships and determining when unhealthy relationships become abusive, Sloss said.
The fourth lesson for the eighth-grade students is about identifying a support system of trusted adults at home, at school and in the community, Sloss said.
“The lessons are very scripted. We are relying on parents and caregivers to dive deeper on these topics. They are just to let students know these topics exist,” Delmonaco said.
The lessons are a new initiative following a Title IX investigation at the school last year, Delmonaco said. Part of the agreement reached in the investigation was to have sexual harassment training and to take a more proactive approach rather than a reactive approach, she said.
When the district reached out to the state Department of Education for advice about taking a proactive approach to teaching about sexual harassment, PPC was recommended as a resource, Delmonaco said. She added that the district has also received advice from its legal counsel on the matter.
Delmonaco said the school district is looking for ways to engage parents and “make sure families are well informed about the tools available to them.”
“We want to be as transparent as possible,” Sloss said, adding that a parent night has been discussed in which parents could get more details about the lessons and see the worksheets.
A letter detailing two more lessons on sexual harassment that will be taught was sent out to parents of all seventh- and eighth-grade students and was posted on the district’s social media Tuesday.
An eighth-grade lesson on “Consent (how to establish and recognize healthy boundaries in daily situations)” and a seventh-grade lesson on “Boundaries/Sexual Harassment” will be taught at the school Friday, the letter said.
An additional lesson for eighth graders, “Showing Support and Identifying Resources”, will be taught May 12, the letter said.
The letter also gave a description of the program and its goals.
