January Parent Success Story

Jordan School District Parents shine a light on what is actually being taught in the district-wide Culture and Language Service Classes and how to OPT OUT! The concerened parents requested the Language and Culture Services curriculum and opt their children out of the presentations.

Hello, parents! We wanted to make you aware of something you may want to opt your child(ren) out of in JSD. We are getting a lot of reports that the Language and Culture Services is making the rounds in several schools this month. We have even heard from some teachers who have asked not to have these lessons come to their school/classroom but are being made to host them anyway. So we wanted to inform you on what these lessons actually look like so you can decide if you’d like your student to attend them.
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We’ve shared about the microaggressions lesson before but we wanted to share an actual recording from an actual class. This lesson leads 6th Graders to “come out” and discuss their “questioning” of their gender and sexuality with the entire class. 

We are also sharing a recording, from a student, of an intersectionality lesson where the team has students write specific identifying attributes, such as race and religion, on a piece of paper. They then tell the students they are in a zombie apocalypse and must shed their “baggage” to survive. They have students cross-identifying attributes off in the order of which ones are easiest for them to let go of. The object of the lesson, apparently, was to convey that some elements of identity vary in importance among individuals and you should be aware of that in every conversation you have. However, the object lesson used is completely nonsensical. Even in a zombie apocalypse, you wouldn’t have to shed the “baggage” of your religion. In fact, holding on to it tighter might be what helps you survive. And race isn’t “baggage” either. It’s DNA. But that’s not the message or implication they want your child to get, is it? I can think of 100 other items that could have been used in this object lesson, but they weren’t. Why? We could talk about the qualifications of this team. But we’ll save that for another time. For now, race and religion were used intentionally. At the beginning of the recording, you can see the image, shared with us by a student, of their assignment that has their identifying features crossed off. 

If your child is in elementary school and is receiving the Giraffe Club lesson, you should be aware that the presenter states that, “BLM is an important organization.” After one of my children came home and reported this to me, I contacted several people in the administration including the Assistant Superintendent and asked if they could please specifically tell me what was said if my child is wrong. They never replied. Because that is exactly what the presenter said. The slides from this lesson are required to be provided by the district to parents. I’m including the image where the presenter has written BLM on his bag in large letters. During the lesson, he goes through discussing each element of “his culture bag” with the class, including BLM. Imagine if an LDS teacher were doing this and they had written LDS on their bag and told students all over the district that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is an important organization. That could be true for that individual, but would it be allowed for them to promote that organization in that way?

We know your time is limited and valuable. So we thought we’d help by providing the wording that I sent to my child’s schools to opt my children out. We have had parents report that they opted their child out of these lessons but the children were still forced to fill out a survey for this department, so the wording takes that into account. 
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OPT OUT LETER EXAMPLE
To whom it may concern:
Please confirm that you have received this notification that my child(ren), (students names here), are not to be involved in any lessons, activities, surveys or conversations with the Language and Culture Services Dept of the Jordan School District. We are currently teaching these topics at home and do not need additional support at this time. 
Sincerely,
(Parents name here)