TORONTO – Schools and governments in multiple nations are embracing comprehensive sex education for K-12 students.

And many parents in multiple nations are fighting back.

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The latest example comes from the Canadian province of Ontario, where the provincial government has imposed a new sex education curriculum that includes instruction on gender identity, sexual orientation, masturbation and other concepts that many parents – particularly those with younger children – are not comfortable with.

The parents demonstrated their displeasure on Monday by keeping their children home from school in droves.

The Toronto school district reported 34,762 absences from elementary schools on Monday, which was more than double the number of absences recorded one week earlier, according to a report from the Canadian Press.

One Toronto elementary, which serves a largely Muslim population, reported an absentee rate of more than 90 percent, the news report said.

The absences are the result of a widespread boycott campaign organized by angry parents, largely through Facebook, the report said. Monday was the first day of the family boycott.

Two parents told the Canadian Press they are upset because the new curriculum teaches moral values that are contrary to their personal beliefs. Like many Americans, they believe schools have no right to contradict the values they teach their children at home.

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“God created only two genders, and they want to teach that there’s more than two genders. That’s wrong,” said Sihu Yahaira, who identified herself as a Christian and said she plans to keep her kids home all week. “For us, it’s against our beliefs.”

“It will promote early sexualization of children,” said parent John Cassels. “It will promote attitudes and behaviors that we find unacceptable. We live in a democratic society. We just want our voice to be heard.”

One school board member, Janet McDougald from the Peel school district, suggested that the campaign is based on misinformation.

“There are people, for their own purposes that I can’t predict what they are, but they have spread outrageous material in the community,” McDougald was quoted as saying. “Totally outrageous material, that in fact we’re going to demonstrate how to masturbate, that children are going to have to show their private parts. I mean, that’s just ridiculous.”

The new sex ed curriculum does embrace many controversial topics that are covered in early grades.

For instance, students in the third grade are taught about same-sex relationships. Masturbation and gender expression are taught in the sixth grade.  Anal sex is discussed in the seventh grade, “in the context of choosing to abstain from or delay certain activities in order to avoid sexually transmitted infections,” according to the Canadian Press.