New Jersey parents rip gender identity lessons for first graders: 'It's concerning'
Fox News correspondent Nate Foy speaks to concerned parents who are speaking out against New Jersey’s new sex education curriculum.
Gov. Phil Murphy has remained silent on New Jersey public school system lessons on gender ideology for children.
Education standards listed "performance expectations" for second graders that include discussing "the range of ways people express their gender and how gender role stereotypes may limit behavior." One school district in the state distributed sample lesson plans indicating first graders could be taught they can have "boy parts" but "feel like" a girl.
Fox News Digital sent requests for comment to multiple press contacts in Murphy's office and received no response Saturday.
Educators in the Garden State are preparing to carry out the teaching standards, which were established in 2020 but not required to be enacted until September 2022.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks during a Get Out The Vote rally Oct. 28, 2021, in New Brunswick, N.J. (Yana Paskova/Getty Images)
One lesson plan, "Purple, Pink and Blue," instructs teachers to talk to their first graders about gender identity, and its first objective is to have the students be able to define "gender, gender identity and gender role stereotypes."
The lesson’s second objective is to have students name "at least two things they’ve been taught about gender role stereotypes and how those things may limit people of all genders."
"Gender identity is that feeling of knowing your gender. You might feel like you are a boy, you might feel like you are a girl," the lesson plan states. "You might feel like you’re a boy even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘girl’ parts. You might feel like you’re a girl even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘boy’ parts."
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A spokesperson for Westfield Public Schools told Fox News Digital that the teaching materials were not the school district's plans. The school superintendent told Fox News Digital that the materials presented to parents at the February Board of Education meeting were a "sample list of resources" aligned with state policy.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy pauses during his COVID-19 update at the War Memorial in Trenton Feb. 5, 2021. (USA Today Network via Reuters Connect)
"During a presentation at the Feb. 22 Board of Education meeting, we provided an update on the district’s work to revise the Comprehensive Health and Physical Education curriculum," Superintendent Dr. Raymond González said.
"We made it clear at the meeting and subsequent meetings that these are resources only — they are not state-mandated — and that the district is in the process of developing its revised curriculum to meet state standards," the superintendent continued.
In June 2020, New Jersey’s board of education broadened its sex education standards to include lessons on both abortion and gender identity.
Fox News' Houston Keene contributed to this report.
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