A landmark law requiring California schools to include contributions of gays and lesbians and people with disabilities in school curriculum technically went into effect in January.
But public schools have received little direction on the new law, leaving it up to individual schools and teachers to interpret how to teach it.
Right now, it's very loose and up in the air, said Demitrious Sinor, who teaches history at Desert Hot Springs High School.
(There's) no mandate of what to teach, how to teach, when to teach it.
Senate Bill 48, also called the FAIR Education Act, expanded a law that already required lessons to accurately portray the role and contribution of groups such as men, women, American Indians, blacks, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
But the state will not release new textbooks until at least 2015 due to budget cuts and has not suggested any supplemental materials.
The information sheet given by the California Department of Education to local districts states ...it falls to the teacher and the local school and district administration to determine how the content is covered and at which grade level(s).
I think in the end, it's going to be up to each community to decide this and hopefully we'll have more resources and guidance for them in future years, said Tom Adams, director of curriculum frameworks and instructional resources division for the California Department of Education.
With so much focus placed on schools' test scores these new requirements are not on the test and other priorities such as budget cuts and the busy end of the school year, schools have not directly addressed the new requirements.
On top of these other competing priorities, gay issues are a more sensitive topic to many and have led to concerns from parents uncomfortable with what their children may learn under the new law.
But proponents of the law don't want schools to wait years until new textbooks are created.
People are saying it's a gray area because they don't know how to approach it and they're afraid of it, said Doug Hairgrove, co-president of Safe Schools, Palm Springs/Desert Communities, a group that works with local schools to improve support for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students.
My feeling is after a year, they should be on it, Hairgrove said.
Not everything should be dependent on the textbook.
Safe Schools plans to hold a meeting with school officials either later this year after the busy state-testing period ends or early next fall to offer lesson suggestions for schools, Hairgrove said.
We're not here to discuss this in an emotional way, he said. This is the law.
The Coachella Valley's three public school districts have discussed the law to varying degrees, but have not given specific direction to teachers about recommended materials to use or topics to cover.
I'm not sure I can tell you how it will play out in a specific classroom any more than I can tell you how one teacher teaches long division, said Tony Knapp, director of elementary education at Palm Springs Unified.
What we're trying to tell teachers is include it at an age-appropriate level and be inclusive.
Desert Sands Unified has created a process for teachers to add any important contributions by any group identified in the law that are left out of the current curriculum, said Kathy Felci, the district's assistant superintendent of educational services.
Coachella Valley Unified will provide the appropriate curriculum when it becomes available but is also leaving the teaching of it up to individual teachers for now, Superintendent Darryl Adams said.
What taught when?
Many educators have already been including lessons that would meet the new requirements discussing Franklin Delano Roosevelt's disability or debating current events such as the repeal of the don't ask, don't tell military policy.
These are social issues and they're before the Supreme Court, said Greg Bingham, whose social studies students at Palm Springs High have discussed social issues such as abortion and gay marriage. These are issues that are important to people.
We do debate these issues and kids are free to speak their minds.
Desert Hot Springs High teacher Sinor plans to continue an activity he has done in the past when students learn about civil rights.
His students read and report about news articles describing the expanding civil rights movement, which includes the gay rights movement, as well as Asian and Latino Americans and American Indians, he said.
Coachella Valley High School social studies teacher Jenny Braithwaite has used documentaries from the American Civil Liberties Union to initiate discussion about the different sides of issues such as gay marriage and adoption, she said.
It was more something that I did when I had time, she said. Now because of the law, it's something that I must do. It's more of a priority.
In elementary school, these lessons often focus on respect and discussing how families come in different shapes and sizes.
The California Department of Education specifically mentions fourth grade, where students learn California history, as an opportunity to include LGBT history.
There's little time to teach social studies in fourth grade with so much focus on teaching math and English for state tests, educators said.
Fourth-graders know what gay means, but at that grade, the discussion of LGBT history would be about civil rights, fourth grade teacher Jeff Hasbrouck-Carle said.
We would be talking about the contributions of human beings who felt that they needed to change something, he said.
You're teaching the kids that they can do the same thing for what they believe in.
But Cathedral City mom Jessica Soto does not want her daughters hearing lessons that refer to gay issues until they are much older.
Maybe when she's like a senior and she's 18, she said Tuesday, referring to her now-8-year-old daughter. But not right now.
The intention is not to discuss intimate details of a person's life, said Carolyn Laub, executive director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network.
That said, there are reasons why, to date in history, students have never learned about Bayard Rustin, a leading civil rights activist whose contributions to Freedom Rides and the 1963 march on Washington have been downplayed because he was openly gay, Laub said.
The law also does not expect schools to guess about a historical figure's orientation, Tom Adams said.
My understanding from the supporters and authors of the bill, people just want it simply to be honest in their history textbooks about who was who, he said.
While the state may not be giving direction or consequences to schools, groups such as Safe Schools and some students are watching to ensure the law is followed.
Students are aware of it and students are talking about it, Laub said, adding that because the gay rights movement is connected to many current events, it is something that students can relate to and are interested in learning about.
I'm sure students will let us know if they find that their school, that there is exclusion of LGBT Americans from discussion in their schools.
Palm Springs High School juniors Cayman Scott and Serene Hersh, both 16, said they have not discussed Harvey Milk or the gay rights movement in their social studies class so far, though they know of other classes where they have been discussed.
Cathedral City resident Blair Merrihew said his son mentioned the new law back when it was first approved, but hasn't heard more about it.
It's not a big thing to me, Merrihew said.
Students today seem to be more sensitive to bullying and more accepting of people of all backgrounds, but requiring schools to focus on social issues on top of all the other things they need to teach becomes problematic, Palm Springs mom Susan Nelson said.
Where do you start and where do you stop with that? she asked.
Others have questioned the value of including LGBT people or someone of any group simply to check off a specific demographic.
Some parents have expressed concern that there was no option for parents to remove their children from lessons on LGBT Americans.
Two separate mothers, who both declined to give their names, said that they planned to remove their young children from public school at least in part because of the new law.
But proponents say the law is not about sex or religious beliefs, but about being inclusive and combating bullying or harassment that lead to higher than average suicide rates among LGBT youth.
It's not about sex; it's about the law, Hairgrove said. It's about equality. It's about respect.
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