Heather Rooks, who was recently elected to serve as the clerk of the Peoria Unified School District Board of Education, posted on January 20 that the district is considering using a textbook that claims there are ‘many variations’ of sex.
The Savvas textbook also appears to touch on issues of mRNA vaccines and stem cell research.
It has not yet been adopted for use at the Peoria high school, but the board will vote on using it or two others at a meeting in May.
DailyMail.com has reached out to both Rooks and the Peoria Unified School District for comment.
Rooks, a mother of five who ran for the Peoria school board on a campaign for parents’ rights, posted photos from the woke textbook on her personal Facebook on January 20.
‘I want parents to understand what is coming: Science and math curriculum adoption is coming in [the] Peoria Unified School District.
‘There are different companies at the district office to read through on textbooks and online resources.’
Rooks included photos showing that the textbook, produced by the Savvas Company and written by biologists Ken Miller and Joe Levine, dismisses the idea of biological sex.
‘The biochemical, physiological and anatomical features associated with “males” and “females” are turning out to be more complex than previously realized, with many genes involved in their development,’ a passage from the textbook reads.
The textbook by the Savvas Learning Company says ‘many variations’ of sex exist
‘We now know that sex is not a binary state, with just two defined outcomes,’ it says. ‘Because of the complexity of the genes and proteins involved in sex determination, many variations exist.
‘Some individuals are born with intermediate sexual (“intersex”) characteristics or even with anatomical features that do not match an individual’s sense of their own gender (“transgender” individuals),’ the woke textbook explains.
It concludes: ‘Sex determination is an active area of research that should yield a more sophisticated understanding in years to come.’
Parents responded to Rooks’ post by saying they do not want the textbook to be used in the district, with one mother writing: ‘I’m so thankful that so many parents are paying attention. It’s going to become harder and harder to even find curriculum that doesn’t include all of this propaganda. ‘
Another said she was glad that she pulled her children out of the public school district, saying, ‘I’m so sick of the indoctrination but yet being told we parents are overreacting,’ while a father said the textbook seems to be more of a social science textbook than a biology textbook.
And speaking to FOX News, Rooks said she was shocked that the proposed curriculum discounted the reality of biological sex.
‘I mean, these are kids we’re talking about,’ she said. ‘It’s not adults making adult decisions. These are children, so their minds are not developed completely yet.’
‘I just don’t think it should be in front of the kids.’
The textbook in question was written by biologists Ken Miller and Joe Levine.
Savva Learning Company advertises it as a ‘blended print and digital curriculum [that] immerses students in biological inquiry.
‘Students think, investigate and talk about biology,’ the publishing company’s website says. ‘They interact with natural phenomena through problem-based learning, research, and lab experiments.’
And in a video discussing the new curriculum, author Ken Miller says: ‘One of the coolest things about biology is it’s a science that keeps changing, it keeps inventing, and we’ve incorporated that in our program.
‘The fact that biology is a dynamic science that is going to continue to change is the sort of thing that excited students and turns them on about the field.’
The Peoria school district has not yet commented on the proposal to use the book, and its website only says that the biology class ‘is an inquiry-based course that studies how life is organized into systems and cycles. Topics include: life processes, cell genetics, natural selection and ecology.’
Written by Melissa Koenig for the Daily Mail ~ January 31, 2023