Parental rights in Colorado seem to be on the chopping block regularly, especially when it comes to our public schools.
One glaring example of an attempt to strip parental rights was HB 1032 debated in 2019.
HB 1032, Colorado’s Radical Sex Education Bill
In yet another attack on our freedoms in Colorado, this bill seeks to expand on the indoctrination students already experience in the Colorado Public School System. Disregarding the concerns of parents, HB 1032 will begin to introduce controversial social issues into the standard curriculum in our schools.
The idea of “Gender Identity” is a core theme of HB 1032. At a public hearing in the Senate on HB 1032, numerous parents from Boulder County whose children are already experiencing this type of “gender transition” programming spoke out. They asked tough questions such as why schools should have any place in these social and physical themed conversations with children. They received virtually no response. Few can deny these are subjects and discussions best to be had in the privacy of your home and not in a public school.
What’s more, there is no requirement for any notification to be sent to parents if this topic of “gender identity” will be covered in the classrooms. Boulder parents shared they received no advanced notice when their children were forced to watch a presentation featuring a transgender raven.
Concerned about this apparent indoctrination of their children, parents were met with harsh criticism when they voiced their concerns with the school.
HB 1032 requires schools teaching about pregnancy outcomes to teach children that having an abortion is an option, equal in measure to parenting and adopting. This curriculum also includes instructions for using abortion-inducing drugs. HB 1032 seems to offer back-door access to liberal entities like Planned Parenthood to influence sex education in public schools, while limiting parental involvement and explicitly banning teaching abstinence-only.
HB 1032 also overrides local control of school districts, forcing this radical version of sexual education down the throats of every public school, including charter schools. Specific language in the bill requires an “all or nothing” approach — not even a simple sex education program that’s purely biology based.
This bill should be particularly worrisome for school boards. Our Colorado Constitution specifically grants local school boards the authority to instruction in the public schools of their respective districts.
HB 1032 is another example of how the State Legislature knows better than the people of Colorado, particularly the parents of young children and locally elected boards.
