The Arizona Capitol Museum building at the State Capitol in Phoenix.
The state Senate voted 16-13 On Monday to advance a sex education bill. A similar proposal was vetoed last month by Governor Doug Ducey.
The Senate was able to bring the proposal back to life after amending it onto another, unrelated, bill.
House Bill 2035 would require parents to opt their students into classes that discuss sex or sexuality. That requirement covers all types of classes.
“They should really stay away from Shakespeare, the Bible, or at least Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Scarlet Letter in English class. This is really a gag order upon our teachers and upon our schools,” said Sen. Kirsten Engel, D-Tucson.
Other Democrats worried how the opt-in requirement could hurt classroom teachers.
“What if half of their students can take the class and the other half can’t and you have an entire school system that half of the students can attend the classes or they get signed permission slips, the other half doesn’t get those permission slips. I’m not sure even how you logistically are able to teach our young people in the schools,” said Sen. Tony Navarrete, D-Phoenix.
In addition to the opt-in requirements, the bill also prohibits the teaching of sex education before the fifth grade.
“Children are viewing sex education materials way too early and having experiences that psychologically traumatize them. This puts an end to that and makes sure that we don’t do harm, that we let parents be the decision-makers, what’s appropriate for them and when,” said Sen. Nancy Barto, R- Phoenix.
Before the bill had cleared the final vote in the Senate, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman tweeted out a statement urging Governor Ducey to veto the bill again.
“This overly broad proposal places an extreme burden on schools to document and require parental consent on a wide variety of educational materials not directly related to formal sex-ed curriculum,” Hoffman wrote.
The House still must vote on the proposal.
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