Sangamon Sun

Gifford Community Consolidated School District 188 in Champaign County won’t be teaching the state’s new controversial sex education curriculum, despite protests the lessons are “obscene and fail to align with community standards.”

The Gifford Community Consolidated School District 188, which teaches 160 students, reported it has opted out of teaching the new curriculum, which includes lessons about masturbation starting in Grade 3.

There were two school districts which did not reply to a query about if it would opt out of teaching the curriculum or said it would wait to make a decision.

The curriculum was criticized by Republicans as “outrageous” and “perverted” while advocates claimed it would safely teach students about things they’re already learning on the internet.

Out of Illinois’ 852 school districts, 520 have opted out of teaching the lessons, leaving students with no sex education lessons at all.

School districts can’t normally opt out of teaching part of a curriculum. However, the sex education bill signed by the Illinois governor included the opportunity for school districts to opt out of teaching the curriculum if they were opposed to the teaching. Some school districts have opted out of teaching the curriculum for certain grades.

Individual school data was gathered by grassroots organization Awake, IL.

School District	Number of Students	Decision
Champaign Community Unit School District 4	10,019	Waiting
Fisher Community Unit School District 1	577	Opting Out
Gifford Community Consolidated School District 188	160	Opting Out
Heritage Community Unit School District 8	354	Opting Out
Ludlow Community Consolidated School District 142	56	Opting Out
Mahomet-Seymour Community Unit School District 3	3,170	Opting Out
Rantoul City School District 137	1,654	Waiting
Rantoul Township High School District 193	779	Opting Out
St. Joseph Community Consolidated School District 169	824	Opting Out
St. Joseph-Ogden Community High School District 305	431	Opting Out
Thomasboro Community Consolidated School District 130	140	Opting Out
Tolono Community Unit School District 7	1,551	Opting Out
Urbana School District 116	4,002	Opting Out