LAS VEGAS – The Clark County School Board in Las Vegas is ignoring parents’ concerns and pushing forward with the possibility of including lessons on gender identity, sexual orientation in the district’s sex ed curriculum.

The board voted Thursday to explore expanding the district’s sex education curriculum for middle and high school students to include several controversial topics Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union thinks are important, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

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“I understand there are sensitivities for different groups of my constituents, but no student should feel as though they are not valid,” trustee Chris Garvy told the large public meeting at Las Vegas Academy.

The meeting was the second since September on the issue, and the board voted unanimously to “review ways to include topics like sexual orientation, gender identity and gender stereotypes in current sex ed curriculum for middle and high school students,” according to the news site.

The move essentially ignores a majority of parents who took a district survey earlier this year and expressed opposition to including the topics. Those parents came out in force during a board meeting in late September, when they called on the district to maintain the current practice of requiring parents to opt-in to sex ed lessons.

Many parents are concerned that including homosexuality in sex ed lessons could “confuse” students, and are demanding control over what their children learn about sex. They also do not believe students in middle school should learn about making responsible sexual choices, information on where to acquire contraception or other topics, as called for by Planned Parenthood and other advocates for “comprehensive” sex ed, according to Sun.

On the latter issue, school board seemed to agree with parents, though they voted to explore changes at both middle school and high school levels.

“It’s not safe for us to be introducing these things at grade five,” trustee Erin Cranor said. “We’re not keeping them safe if we accidentally institutionalize (the idea) of them being sexually active at a young age.”

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The Sun reports parents at the meeting also demanded representation on the district’s sex education advisory committee, or SEAC, and board members agreed to look including them.

“Parents need to be represented on the SEAC board,” said Deborah Earl, head of the Power2Parent advocacy group opposing the changes. “That’s what it was designed for.”

Trustee Carolyn Edwards, however, made sure parents knew their place, and said their input on the sex education their children receive is no more important than any other taxpayer’s.

“Every voting person in this county is a constituent, whether you’re a parent or not,” she said, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.

“My children are not in school anymore (but) that doesn’t mean my opinion doesn’t matter,” Edwards said. “Nor should it mean that someone else’s opinion doesn’t matter just because they don’t have a student in the district.”

Trustee Garvey also asked school administrators to examine the possibility of offering more than one type of sex education curriculum, to give parents the opportunity to select the type of information their children would receive about sex, the news site reports.

“Option A – what I call ‘sex ed lite’ – may be the choice for the majority in (one) community, and Option B may be the choice now where you get ‘the Full Monty,’” he said.