BENZONIA, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A northern Michigan school received a formal complaint after some parents objected to what was being taught during the sexual education lessons. 

It took several parents complaints in April of this school year before a formal complaint was filed against a school in Benzie Central Schools district according to spokeswoman Monica Yatooma for the Great Schools Initiative. 

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“I think it’s very important to be involved in wherever the kids are learning just to make sure it’s appropriate and it’s age-appropriate and in line with what they should be learning,” she said according to UpNorthLive. 

The complaints prompted a formal complaint as a result of several accusations by parents. 

“The first was that they were teaching and or talking about abortion, which is illegal in Michigan,” Yatooma said. “The second complaint against Benzie was their SCAB, which is the Sex Education Advisory Board, was out of compliance.” 

The school followed up with some internal reviewing  according to the Benzie Central Schools Superintendent Amiee Erfourth, UpNorthLive reported. 

“When we received this allegation… I investigated,” Erfourth said, “There was no abortion being taught as a family planning method, nor is it part of the curriculum,” Erfourth said.

What Erfouth allegedly found was something that was different from what parents had claimed. 

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“What did happen though, is that a student had asked a question, what the term late-term abortion meant, and so he answered the student’s question, and so that was the concern,” Erfourth said.

She then proceeded to speak with the teacher and conveyed that they were not allowed to answer those types of questions, “But there was no teaching at all about that as a family planning method,” she said. 

The Michigan Sex Education Collaborative (SEC) sheds light on some of the parameters of Michigan’s policies and requirements on this topic. 

  • Michigan schools are not required to teach sex education. However, HIV/AIDS education is required.
  • Curriculum is not required to be comprehensive.
  • Curriculum must stress abstinence as a positive lifestyle.
  • Curriculum is not required to include instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.
  • Curriculum is not required to include instruction on consent. However, curriculum must include instruction on refusal skills.
  • Parents or guardians must receive written notice of any sex education class and can remove their children from any part of the instruction. This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.
  • HIV/AIDS education must be medically accurate. If a school chooses to teach sex education, curriculum cannot be medically inaccurate.

Furthermore, Michigan law forbids teaching abortion “shall not be considered a method of family planning, nor shall abortion be taught as a method of reproductive health,” according to SEC. 

While the school denies teaching abortion, they admit there is some validity to the lack of an active Sex Education Advisory Board.

“Much like every school was impacted by COVID and interruptions to our normal programming, our sex ed advisory board was impacted by that,” Erfourth said. “And when we came back from COVID, it had not been meeting regularly. Just because there were other things that were taking precedence at that point.

According to the superintendent, the Sex Ed Advisory Board had its first meeting on May 9, and the group has been meeting every two weeks since then. 

“We obviously want to continue to do right by our families and our students and that is our ultimate goal and if people have concerns or questions, I really encourage them to please reach out to our school, please talk to their administrators or they can always reach out to me. I’m happy to assist them so that they can get the facts,” Erfourth said.

GSI remarked that they were happy with how the situation was handled. 

“We love to see it every time, although it’s not the case, but yes, we believe it is, how they should respond. Benzie did it perfectly,” Yatooma said.