ISLE OF WIGHT, Va. - The Isle of Wight school board is taking action on parental rights in the classrooms.
Measures passed at a board meeting Thursday night give parents control of what their children read.
This comes after Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill last year regulating explicit content in schools.
The board passed two measures Thursday. One allows high school parents to opt their child out of learning material that contains sexually explicit material. The other measure bans sexually explicit material in elementary and middle schools in Isle of Wight.
Matt Ployed, a Smithfield High School history teacher, said sexually explicit material is not taught in his classroom.
"The only books that these would be brought into would be AP classes. AP English courses are college courses that parents have to volunteer and sign on for. They are already accepting that students are going to be dealing with college-level material in high school. It’s not to the extent of pornography they are making it out to be," Ployed said.
A book in Isle of Wight high schools that contains violence and sexually explicit content is “1984.” A school spokesperson said parents will now be able to opt out of having their child read the book.
During the school board meeting, parents also raised concerns about the history being taught to their children.
"How entrenched DEI and CRT is throughout our curriculum and teaching training programs. Racist propaganda and its tenants must be rooted out and defunded," one Isle of Wight parent said.
Another parent wants all cultures to be taught.
"You can’t lead by example when you fail to give a diverse perspective about something," another parent said.
"I teach world history and part of that history is very much so African American history," Ployed said. "We talk about the African kingdoms, we talk about Islam, religion as a unit. We talk about a lot of things that a lot of people in the world community may not find subjectively divisive."
The school board will vote on divisive concepts being taught in classes during March's school board meeting. This will include Critical Race Theory and different cultures being taught in Isle of Wight Schools.
