Beverly Public Schools Virtue Signal, Give Literal "Sex Guides" to Minors
The BPS school committee pledges allegiance to the progress pride flag while the high school teaches about sex toys. Beverly parents, time to rise up.
Desensitize (verb) - de·sen·si·tize (ˌ)dē-ˈsen(t)-sə-ˌtīz
1: to make (a sensitized or hypersensitive individual) insensitive or nonreactive to a sensitizing agent
2: to make emotionally insensitive or callous
That’s Merriam-Webster’s definition of desensitize. It’s also a perfect explainer of what can happen when you view too much of the sex ed curricula being used in MA public schools.
The first time you see a lesson plan that teaches kids there’s no such thing as a boy, it’s actually just a “person with a penis,” you can’t believe it’s real. By the 20th time, it feels significantly less jarring. The human mind only has the capacity to be shocked so many times by the same thing. Desensitization, case in point.
(The same desensitization happens to kids when they are exposed to sexual material or novel gender theories, by the way - a fact not lost on activists.)
But just when we thought we had surpassed our capacity to be truly shocked by anything that might turn up in a MA sex ed curriculum, along comes Beverly Public Schools.
Last fall, Massachusetts Family Institute submitted a public records request to the Beverly Public Schools for their sex ed curriculum as part of MFI’s Sex Ed Map Project. When we reviewed the curriculum returned by the district, what we discovered made our jaws literally drop. See below, if you dare.
We were floored to discover that Beverly’s 9th-grade curriculum (made for minors, mind you) includes literal “Sex Guides.” These guides, downloaded from an LGBTQ organization based in the UK, were found in a freshman-year wellness slide show. The slide, pictured above, contains links to the full guides. These guides, which focus on anal, oral, and vaginal sex, are each over 20 pages long and clearly written for sexually-active adults.
But before we zero in on the insanity that is putting sex guides in public school curriculum for minors, let’s pull back and take a broader look at Beverly’s sex ed landscape. You can read MFI’s full report on Beverly’s curriculum and see EVERY document that was received from the district HERE.
If you are a Beverly parent and you haven’t had a chance to engage with your kid’s sex ed curriculum before now, that’s understandable. You and your kids have had a tumultuous school year already. Your district attracted national attention last fall for being the site of the longest teacher strike in state history. Your kids missed a lot of classes, and now they have to attend Saturday school and give up some vacation days to make up for the time lost. It would be easy to just be thankful that school is back in session, focus on helping your child catch up on their reading, writing and ‘rithmetic, and cross your fingers in the hope that the rest of the year is normal. Sex ed might, quite reasonably, be the furthest thing from your mind. If that’s you, well… we get it. But you really need to see this.
First, let’s talk about what Beverly did NOT send to MFI in response to the public records request. According to the curriculum planning page on the BPS district website, “The district is required to align its curriculum with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. The district has aligned instruction in grades K-12 in English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Health/Wellness.”
As we have reported before, DESE’s Comprehensive Health and Physical Education framework, approved for use in MA schools in September 2023, includes controversial standards for even the youngest students. It requires that teachers “use medically accurate names for body parts, including genitals when communicating about their body and physical health,” and “discuss gender-role stereotypes and their potential impacts on people of all genders” with kids as young as PreK-2. (Emphasis ours.) DESE provided professional development for teachers on how to institute the CHPE framework in the spring of 2024. Thanks to the attendee list that MIP obtained via public record request (which you can download HERE), we know that several Beverly teachers attended that training. So did the assistant superintendent. Given these factors, it’s likely that the BPS is teaching these controversial standards in younger grades as well. Because DESE has sneakily categorized these standards as “Healthy Relationships” and “Physical Health and Hygiene,” the district may have thought these lessons did not apply to the public records request. If you are a Beverly parent of K-4 students, contact your school today and request to see the entire health and wellness curriculum.
The lessons MFI did receive from the BPS covered the following grade levels: 5th, 8th, 9th, and 12th. We will take a look at them level by level.
5th graders in Beverly receive puberty education which includes a slideshow and the “Always Changing and Growing Up” video from Proctor and Gamble. This video, made to be shown in the co-ed setting, is relatively tame in comparison to many other video-based puberty lessons. However, the slideshow itself lays the groundwork for gender confusion.
The “Pre-test” (and later, the “Post-test”) slides describe boys as “non-menstruators” and “people who will NOT experience a period.”
The Always Changing and Growing Up video, which was made before the world went gender-crazy, uses the term “boys” and “girls.” This must have been deemed problematic by the BPS, because whichever educator assembled this slideshow felt the need to preface it with a disclaimer to “include” all students.
The underlying assumption of the slideshow creator, of course, is that the gender binary is no longer sufficient to describe the human experience. Some boys might have a girl brain on the inside, and vice versa, and this must be accounted for. This quasi-religious tenet of gender ideology translates to educators, in the name of inclusivity, instructing students that they should identify themselves and each other by their ability to menstruate (or lack thereof) rather than acknowledge the beauty (and obvious biological veracity) of male and female.
This is bad for kids because it lies to them about the reality of biological sex. It’s bad because it cheapens what it means to be a boy or a girl. And it’s bad because frankly, it’s downright confusing. Many 5th-grade girls have not yet had their first period. What category do they go in? How does one KNOW if they will grow up to be a menstruator or a non-menstruator if this designation is untethered from being male or female? Confusing kids about the basics of puberty and lying to them about human biology are the very last things a lesson like this should do, and yet, that’s exactly what it does.
Find the 5th-grade lessons starting on page 8 of this document HERE.
Next up is 8th grade… sort of. The files returned from the BPS did not clearly delineate which lessons were used with 8th graders, save for one that was named “8th Relationship Balloon Tree.” After reviewing all of the files from the PRR, we think it’s likely that Beverly 8th graders are being taught a unit on healthy relationships. The documents that appear to be associated with this unit are not overtly sexual, though it does reference a “Couplets Film Series” that we were not able to review. 8th-grade parents should contact the BPS to verify what exactly is being used with this age group.
Find the 8th grade “Relationship Balloon Tree” and associated resources starting on page 20 of this document HERE.
Normally we wouldn’t take the time to show you an unobjectionable lesson like the happy little balloon man above, but in this case, his innocence illustrates an important point. If you are a Beverly Middle School parent and you have been lulled into complacency by the lack of explicit sexual material in your child’s health class, be warned. Between 8th grade and 9th grade, a whole lot changes.
Goodbye, happy balloon man. Hello, naked butts (and that’s just the start).
As we mentioned before, the 9th-grade sex ed curriculum contains literal “Sex Guides.” These 3 guides are found in the “Sex Ed 3 - Sexual intercourse, consent, STIs, date rape & sexual assault” slideshow, viewable on the course overview below.
These obscene guides are not the only outrageous part of 9th-grade Wellness, but in our opinion, they are the most outrageous.
The anal sex guide contains an anal sex glossary including definitions for terms like “fisting” (“Putting a fist inside someone’s vagina or arse hole”) and “rimming” (“Licking someone’s anus”). It also features instructions on how to make anal sex more pleasurable, how to stimulate your partner’s prostate gland, information about “Poppers” (recreational sex drugs not legal in the US for this purpose), and answers to questions like “How safe is it to engage in bareback sex on PrEP?” and “How do I know if I can trust my new partner(s)s?”
The oral sex guide is no better.
Neither is the vaginal sex guide.
The oral and vaginal guides, in addition to including glossaries replete with terms that would get an adult arrested if they taught them to random kids on the playground, teach kids how to 69 a partner or lick their anus, answer questions like “I’m worried about farting when I rim/get rimmed” and “My partner still sees me as a man, what can I do?,” and (sadly) much more. They also spend a lot of time talking about surgically-altered genitalia. Fabricated “vaginas” made via vaginoplasty are discussed right alongside actual female genitalia. The Frankenstein-esque butchery that is “gender-affirming surgery” is utterly normalized, which leads to incoherent sentences like the ones below.
“Woman, man, non-binary, cis gender, trans? Whether you’ve had any surgery or not, this guide is for you and your vagina.”
Um. No.
That’s not how any of this works.
The bulk of the rest of the 9th-grade lessons are produced by Planned Parenthood. Here are a few sample slides:
Imagine a room of co-ed 9th graders being instructed from this slide, part of the “Sex Ed 1 - Reproductive Systems” lesson. How awkward and embarrassing for the students. How utterly irresponsible on the part of the teacher.
Gender ideology is also a major emphasis of the 9th-grade curriculum.
The teacher’s note on this slide from the “Sex Ed 2 - Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation” lesson says, “This presentation is designed as a broad overview of gender identity and sexual orientation. For that reason, we are not able to discuss all gender identities and sexual orientations that exist. We recognize that there are many more people that are not covered in this presentation. We honor and celebrate all identities.” This lesson is gender ideology, double barrel. It also includes the Gender Unicorn, a slide about how you must always use “correct pronouns and names” (and by “correct,” they mean… not actually correct), and the typical emotional blackmail about the importance of “safe spaces” for “LGBTQ youth.” They also throw in a slam against religion, for good measure.
If you go through the entire 9th-grade curriculum, you will probably notice that other than the sex guides and a few other resources, much of the 9th-grade curriculum is taken directly from Planned Parenthood. We understand why Planned Parenthood, an organization whose business model depends on illicit sexual activity and the promotion of gender confusion would put out such graphic and ideologically-driven material. But we can’t understand why the Beverly Public Schools thinks it is appropriate for kids who are not yet old enough to legally consent to sex.
Speaking of Planned Parenthood, one of the resources used in the 9th-grade lessons that they didn’t create - but would wholly endorse - is the following video from Amaze. What is an Abortion? tells kids that a “person who is pregnant” (not a pregnant woman, mind you) can “decide what’s best for them.” Not wanting to have a baby, being in school, and “not being able to afford a baby” are all presented as morally unimpeachable reasons for abortion, which is deemed a “very safe medical procedure.” The depiction of the abortion shows the fetus as a small blob with no attempt at medical accuracy. It derides crisis pregnancy centers, calling them “fake clinics that exist only to try and talk a person out of having an abortion.” It depicts people who oppose abortion as angry and judgmental and those who support abortion as understanding and kind.
Regardless of one’s views on abortion, any honest viewer would agree that this video is extremely biased. It fails to inform students that, should they find themselves unexpectedly pregnant, aborting their child is not their only avenue to a successful life. It glazes over the very real physical risks of abortion. It never mentions the emotional trauma reported by many post-abortive women. It presents a false view of the complexity and humanity of the developing baby. It never explains why someone might object to this “very safe medical procedure,” other than leaving the viewer to assume that those who oppose abortion are jerks (or worse). It mentions what crisis pregnancy centers don’t do (abortions), but it never mentions what they DO do (provide pregnant mothers and young families with free baby items, practical support, resources, and counseling). All said, it completely stacks the deck in favor of elective abortion while short-circuiting a student’s ability to wrestle with the other side of the issue (or even informing students that there is another side of the issue worth wrestling with). It’s the very narrative that drives young women straight to Planned Parenthood to begin with.
This is far from a concise list of the sexualization, and indoctrination present in the 9th-grade Wellness lessons. Parents, we strongly encourage you to read the whole curriculum for yourselves.
Find the 9th-grade “Wellness” lessons and associated resources starting on page 57 of this document HERE.
Now on to 12th grade, the last age group covered in the Beverly PRR records drop.
12th-grade Wellness at BHS is much less involved than its 9th-grade equivalent (thank goodness). According to the PRR files, it consists of presentations by three presenters: Greg West (“Emerging Sexually”), Beverly Police Department Domestic Violence Unit (“Abusive Relationships”), and North Shore Rape Crisis YWCA (“Consent and the Law”). The presentations from the YWCA and police department were not available for review. “Emerging Sexually” was, however, and it deserves a closer look.
But first we wondered, who is Greg West, the guest speaker listed by the BPS as the presenter of “Emerging Sexually?”
According to his website, West is a former public school Health Science teacher who now offers teacher Health Education programs for students, parents, and teachers through his organization, WEPS Education. He offers lectures for adults and students on a variety of topics, including his support for “comprehensive sex education.” His adult lectures include “Addressing Opposition to Sex Education,” which per his website, “considers the reasons for and tactics used by the opposition and suggests ways to assure that right to comprehensive sex education is protected in schools.” West presented this lecture in 2022 alongside presenters from the Guttmacher Institute and Power to Decide (amongst others) at the Northeastern University School Health Academy 7th Annual Voting Day Conference. The slide below is from his 2022 presentation. You can view the whole thing here.
West’s 2022 presentation which spells out his position on “Sex-Positive” education, and his antagonism toward abstinence education is echoed in his presentation to Beverly students. “Emerging Sexually,” presents a dim view of abstinence education, referring to it as “indoctrination” and “fear-based.” He then highlights his own view in the most favorable possible light, referring to it as “science-based” and providing “factual knowledge.”
Among other issues, and ironic given the early appeal to science, the presentation then goes on to invoke the hotly debated work of pedophile-adjacent Alfred Kinsey.
It also informs students that “we’re nearly all sexually active, just in different places on the spectrum,” a statement that fails to differentiate any moral distinction between flirting and intercourse and ultimately devalues the latter.
We don’t know what else West says to 12th-grade Beverly students, of course, but based on the slides it is reasonable to conclude that a student would walk away from the presentation with a tilted view of the importance of sexual abstinence, a diminished respect for people who promote it, and an increased openness to sexual activity and abortion. They will also come away with a recommendation for a local clinic that provides anonymous services including abortion and birth control.
The photo is of a different building, but the address and phone number belong to Beverly HealthQ, an abortion clinic that’s only a five-minute drive from Beverly High School. Beverly HealthQ has earned reviews like the ones below from Google and Yelp. This is only a sampling of the negative reviews.
Would BPS students, who have previously been indoctrinated with a whitewashed understanding of abortion, be capable of giving informed consent at Beverly HealthQ, a clinic that according to several reviews, is sketchy at best? Does the BPS stand by West’s referral of students to a place reported to have “leftover blood on the floor and on the stirrups of the bed?” We don’t know. Regardless, since “Emerging Sexually” is ideologically in step with the radical content of 9th-grade Wellness, BHS parents should demand accountability for all of this content.
Find the 12th-grade “Wellness” lessons and associated resources starting on page 280 of this document HERE.
Before we wrap up our look at Beverly Public Schools sex ed, there’s one more piece of information that parents should know. This is related to sex ed, specifically the gender ideology taught within, but in some ways is worse. That’s because, while you can opt out of sex ed under MA law, you can’t opt out BPS’s districtwide endorsement of gender ideology unless you opt out of the school system altogether.
A little over a week ago the following article appeared in the Boston Globe.
The rest of the article, which does not pertain to Beverly, can be read here.
This article, coupled with the Beverly School Committee’s recent unanimous approval of a “Resolution to Support our Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer/Questioning (“LGBTQ+”) Students,” paints the picture of a school district where gender ideology can pop up anytime - and when it does, it will be uncritically promoted and celebrated. Not only is dangerous and controversial social transition the BPS’s modus operandi for dealing with gender-confused kids, but their adherence to it is also a source of pride. Because of this, parents can assume that sex ed class is far from the only place that discussions of gender and sexuality will happen in the BPS. According to the Globe article, the district “acknowledges and respects” the chosen name of a child who expressed gender confusion. If the testimony of one guidance counselor is any guide, a gender-confused child upset by another child expressing a traditional view of male and female will have their emotional fragility reinforced by school officials. This one-sided institutional support for gender ideology begs other questions. What about the child who expresses that different view? Would their view also be acknowledged and respected? What if a parent didn’t want the school to affirm their child’s gender confusion - would their parental rights be acknowledged and respected? These are questions that any commonsense Beverly parent who isn’t on board with everything we’ve exposed in this post should ask before they allow their child to set foot back in any one of Beverly’s public schools. If these issues haven’t impacted your kids yet, it’s only a matter of time before they do.
Any district bold enough to virtue signal in direct defiance of the current presidential administration will almost certainly not think twice about defying a parent’s constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their own child, or a student’s First Amendment rights to express the traditional understanding of human sexuality and “gender.” And any district delusional enough to think that “sex guides” make for appropriate instructional resources has demonstrated (at most charitably) a profound lack of judgment resulting in a devastating failure to protect vulnerable students. These are critical flaws that Beverly’s parents simply must address.
Mom and Dad, if you’re in Beverly or another similar town, it’s time to either try and right the ship, or get off the boat entirely. While you consider your options, here are some actions you can take.
Opt your child out of sex ed. Use these sample letters or write your own. If your school tells you they don’t teach sex ed, ask to see their health and/or wellness curriculum. Topics pertaining to human sexuality might be found there, under another name. This is especially true in the younger grades.
Report your school if they are violating Trump’s executive order on DEI, gender ideology, or failing to protect girls’ safety, sports, and privacy through Title IX. To learn more, read this post.
Look at other schooling options. This page has information on homeschooling, private schools, and church-based learning centers.
Engage with your district. Do a deep dive into school curriculum, social media, policy, and more. Watch school committee meetings. Read school newsletters. Find out everything you can about what’s going on in your district so that you can address issues before they crop up rather than after the fact.
Pressure the district to find a new superintendent who won’t tolerate sexualizing kids. The Beverly Public Schools is currently interviewing superintendent candidates for the coming year. If you are a Beverly taxpayer, tell decision-makers that you expect them to hire a superintendent who will protect kids from the problems we exposed in this post. This is especially true for the sexually explicit and ideologically biased curricular materials, which the superintendent could direct the office of the assistant superintendent to review.
Engage with your child. Ask them questions about what they are seeing or hearing in school, especially regarding gender and sexuality (or any other topic you are concerned about). If they tell you something that sets off alarm bells, don’t freak out. Follow up with the school to find out more.
Share this post. This is especially true if you are in Beverly, but parents all across MA need to see what we found. While Beverly’s sex guides are the worst thing we’ve seen show up in MA sex ed curriculum (so far), MA public schools keep sinking to new lows. Parents need to stay vigilant, no matter their zip code.
We hope that someday MA school districts will stop finding new ways to sexualize kids and delude them with gender confusion. When that happens, we will stop writing posts like this. But in the meantime, we will continue to alert parents to the dangerous and destructive things we find.
Because while ignorance is bliss, it won’t protect your kids.
Are you a parent whose rights (or whose child’s rights) have been violated by a district like Beverly? Are you a public school staff member in Beverly or elsewhere whose rights of conscience, speech, or religion have been violated (or could be violated) by your district’s policies? To understand your legal options, contact Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center today.
Did you love this post? Do you know people who would like to receive this type of in-depth analysis in their inbox, once a week (or whenever we post it)? If so, share Massachusetts Informed Parents Substack with your friends now!
Was this post forwarded to you by a friend? If so, subscribe today!
Horrifying. We've come to this.
This is a bit much, no?