A group of parents are taking the Welsh Government to the High Court over concerns that mandatory Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) lessons as part of the new curriculum will be ‘sexualising children’ [1]. The mandatory nature of the lessons is seen as an attack on parental rights.
The Public Child Protection Wales group say children as young as three will be taught about “sensitive and arguably inappropriate topics”, including gender ideology, and that parents are being disenfranchised by being denied the right to remove their child from sex education.
Kim Isherwood says the “new mandatory element also means that every child, aged three-16, must take part. It cannot be avoided by anyone, and there are no rights for parents to request information on what will be taught, at what age, or to ask that their child sit out.”
Another parent, Lucia Thomas, said: “We are deeply concerned that in our current culture, there is a progressive, aggressive lobby which is seeking to push onto children and young people ideologies which parents would find inappropriate.
“School is a place to learn about vital biology, learn how to develop relationships (with both sexes) and to develop respect. But, as parents, we believe what is happening here is the sexualisation of children, not the education of children,” she said.