Warning: This report includes graphic language and references to such language, which some readers may find offensive.

A Virginia school district is using a teacher’s guide for middle school sex education, cosponsored by Planned Parenthood, that promotes student “role-plays,” urges normalizing of certain behavior, and refers to sterilization as “permanent birth control.” 

The teachers guide used by Norfolk Public Schools is a 470-page book titled “Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education that Works.” 

Sponsoring and producing the book along with Planned Parenthood is Education Training and Research, or ETR, a nonprofit that says it wants to “advance health equity.”

In a Twitter thread Tuesday, Janae Stracke, vice president of field operations for Heritage Action for America, detailed several aspects of  “Get Real” that parents of middle school students, usually ages 11-13, might find objectionable. (Heritage Action is the advocacy arm of The Heritage Foundation, parent organization of The Daily Signal.)

The book instructs teachers to “normalize” certain actions and behavior, referring to “normalizing” 21 different times. 

Norfolk Public Schools, which serves the city of Norfolk, Virginia, includes 51 schools and about 28,000 students. 

The words “For Teacher Review Only” are printed on almost every page of “Get Real.”

While appearing to endorse abortion, the book acknowledges abstinence from sexual relations in several places, at one point saying that “abstinence from sex is the most effective way to avoid sexually transmitted infection s and unintended pregnancy.” 

Without using the word abortion, “Get Real” twice lists abortion-related resources and refers to Planned Parenthood’s website while touting a “pro-choice action network.”  The description says: “This website contains information on contraception, pregnancy testing, emergency contraception, pregnancy options, STI and HIV testing and treatments, as well as a pro-choice action network and sex education programs.” 

The book also talks frequently about “reproductive health,” which has come to be a euphemism for abortion on demand.

“Get Real” tells teachers how to evaluate role-playing by middle school students. It says:

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Role-plays allow for cognitive and behavioral rehearsal of communication and refusal skills during difficult situations. The following simple checklist may be used to assess student performance in role-plays. Teachers are encouraged to share these criteria with students so they understand how they will be evaluated in the performance of the various role-plays.

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“An ADULT will be grading students on sexual role play scenarios,” Heritage Action’s Stracke tweeted. 

“Get Real” also suggests as a resource a 68-page guide for transgender students titled “Schools in Transition,” which bears the names of these liberal advocacy groups: the National Education Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign, Gender Spectrum, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. 

“Schools in Transition” calls for keeping parents out of the loop if a male student wants to become a girl or a female student wants to become a boy, making it a priority that the gender transition is “affirmed.”

The guide says:

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Whenever a transgender student initiates this process, the educator or administrator should ask whether the student’s family is accepting in order to avoid inadvertently putting the student at risk of greater harm by discussing with the student’s family. Based on that information, the school and student should determine how to proceed through the collaborative process of figuring out how the school can support the student and balance the student’s need to be affirmed at school with the reality that the student does not have that support at home.

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“Get Real,” the book co-sponsored by Planned Parenthood, also refers to “permanent birth control.” 

“A suggested form of birth control for 11-13 year olds is sterilization,” Stracke tweeted about “Get Real.”

Stracke called for parents to let their voices be heard Wednesday night at a meeting of the Norfolk School Board.

Two spokespersons for Norfolk Public Schools did not respond to The Daily Signal’s inquiries Wednesday by publication time. 

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