Editor,

In March, while Washington state was shutting down businesses, schools and churches, leaders in Olympia shoved through a mandatory comprehensive sex education bill that is more dangerous to our children than COVID-19.

Thousands of parents and educators showed up in Olympia to express their concerns over Senate Bill 5395, but state legislators ignored those pleas and passed the sex ed bill.

Outraged citizens organized and worked behind the scenes and made history by collecting twice as many signatures needed to qualify to take the vote to the people of Washington.

Now we all have a chance to undo the damage done in Olympia. Reject R-90 and protect our students.

Current law already requires that sex education be taught in our public schools.

Yet, if voters approve Referendum 90, sex education will be mandatory every year, starting in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Valuable time needed to teach reading, math and science will be compromised.

Promoters of Referen-dum 90 state that the sex ed materials will be age appropriate, but parents and local school district education will not make the decision. Instead, powerful unelected special interests groups will tell parents and school districts what is age appropriate.

Free curriculum that is currently approved and encouraged through the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Olympia is disturbing and would promote unnecessary sexualization of our children. Reject R-90 and protect our students.

Promoters of R-90 claim parents will have the option to opt out of the sex education.

If that were really true, they would have allowed a strong opt out amendment to come to a vote last March. They voted it down. Now, as the bill stands, the only true opt out option parents have would be removing their students from the public school.

Reject R-90 and tell Olympia legislators that parents and local school districts are capable of making their own decisions.

Ellen Mottet

Coupeville