During a recent meeting at Dillon Valley Elementary School about new social studies standards, administrators and staff introduced themselves before a crowd of one.
“You had no idea when you left your house we would all be here for you!” Summit School District Superintendent Tony Byrd joked, addressing the one parent in attendance.
Turnout for the district's social studies standards and curriculum meetings in April was low. In
contrast, debate about the new standards, before and after they were adopted in 2022, was heated. Meetings were packed with people primarily concerned about the incorporation of LGBTQ perspectives and history into the new social studies guidelines.
“It created quite a reaction amongst some,” Byrd said. “We had about 100 people at a board (of education) meeting who were really worried about the LGBTQ+ representation, the curriculum standards. There were just lots of questions. It was very feisty.”
The impact of new standards
The Colorado State Board of Education is required to review social studies curriculum every six years. Legislation over the past few years created new requirements for social studies curricula statewide during the latest review cycle. Some of the bills related to teaching about the Holocaust and the representation of minorities in social studies lessons, including LGBTQ people, became controversial at both state and local levels.
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“You know, we just don't want this stuff being pushed on young, impressionable children, who don't have the wherewithal to understand these things,” Danielle Surette, a Frisco parent who spoke up last year, said.
In October of 2022, Summit School District’s board of education unanimously passed a resolution in support of the proposed standards. A month later, the state board passed the standards themselves, which include many social studies updates, including around LGBTQ history.
“We know we have students of all different representations that are sitting in front of us,” Shannon Adam, literacy coordinator for Summit School District, said at the community meeting. “It's important for them to see themselves throughout civics and history engagement.”
The standards apply to social studies curricula from preschool through 12th grade and emphasize that lessons must cover the history and contributions of minority groups, including African Americans, Latinos, Indigenous peoples, Asian Americans, Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, religious minorities and LGBTQ people.
Each district controls what this will look like in the classroom by choosing its own curriculum.
Here are some examples of the required changes: Under the standards, a high schooler should be able to talk about the rights and contributions of diverse groups and the role of government in advancing their rights. A fourth grader should be able to describe past and present interactions among diverse groups in Colorado. In first grade, a student should be able to identify notable leaders from diverse groups.
When the standards were up for discussion in 2022 and 2023, some parents believed bringing up LGBTQ history would lead to discussions about sexual orientation and sex.
“How are you going to go about talking about that to a five-year-old?” Surette asked. “'Oh, well, this person was LGBTQ.' What does that mean? These kids don't know what that means, right? So then that leads this teacher to have to go into detail and discuss these things.”
The standards note the requirement under the new standards is to teach about the history of LGBTQ people, “not an obligation to teach comprehensive human sexuality education, which is optional under state law.”
'An appreciation of where we are today'
While some parents in Summit County believe these changes are inappropriate and confusing, some local high school students feel the updates are clarifying and validating.
“A lot of people recently think that, ‘Oh, the whole queer movement, it's a new thing. It's a
radical, like liberal movement,'” 18-year old Abby Hyland, a student at Summit High School in Breckenridge, said.
During a recent after school Student Equality Alliance (SEA) meeting, Hyland described LGBTQ history as a long and ongoing battle.
“Learning a little bit of our history helped us gain an appreciation for where we are today. Like, that we can all be in a club right now, openly, like, gay, trans or queer,” Hyland said in reference to members of the school's Student Equality Alliance.
This academic year, Summit High School incorporated more of these diverse perspectives into its U.S. history curriculum, covering historical events related to the early LGBTQ movement and the Stonewall Riots. One student at the SEA meeting described tearing up listening to their teacher give the lesson.
For Hyland, an education that includes LGBTQ history provides hope.
"Teaching people about the history and like what we are as a community is a great way to just stop bigotry from forming. Preventing it," Hyland said.
