ADF Demands Roaring Fork School District Remove Or Revise 3Rs Sex‑Ed Curriculum, Citing Parental Rights

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has sent a formal demand to Colorado's Roaring Fork School District, asking officials to discontinue or substantially revise the district's human sexuality program — the 3Rs curriculum (Rights, Respect, Responsibility) — or to change how parents are notified and allowed to exclude their children from lessons.

What ADF Alleges

In a letter to the Roaring Fork Schools Board of Education and Superintendent Anna Cole and in a later social post, ADF contends the curriculum exposes children as young as five to graphic material and ideologically driven content about human sexuality. The organization cites lesson elements such as anatomical images followed by quizzes that ask students to identify body parts (including nipples, vulva and clitoris); activities that ask young children how they like to be touched; and lessons that challenge a strictly binary view of gender.

ADF also alleges that by sixth grade students are assigned to act as "Sex Ed Sleuths," researching sexual-health websites independently with parental permission or involvement addressed only after that research. The group says a seventh-grade lesson called "I Am Who I Am" frames the idea of choosing one’s sexual orientation or gender identity as a myth and requires students to affirm that idea on a worksheet. Eighth graders, ADF says, fill out worksheets rating how "LGBTQ-inclusive" their school is, and high-school lessons include myth-or-fact exercises stating sexual orientation cannot be changed and encourage gender-inclusive phrasing.

Parental Notice And Opt-Out Concerns

The letter is sharply critical of Roaring Fork's notification and opt-out procedures. ADF alleges the district often gives two weeks' notice — and sometimes less — before lessons and that the opt-out process is difficult to find: a paper opt-out letter placed in a student's take-home folder and a digital notice buried among other Remind app announcements labeled generically as "health education." ADF says this system appears aimed at preserving high participation rather than giving parents a genuine choice.

"This isn't just shocking and disturbing. It's a violation of parents' constitutional rights," ADF President Kristen Waggoner wrote on X. "Exposing young children to graphic sexual content without the knowledge & guidance of their parents is both morally reprehensible and legally impermissible."

District Response And Local Reaction

District officials say they did not adopt the full 3Rs program. Local reporting indicates Roaring Fork selected roughly 18 lessons from a bank of more than 100, screening out material deemed inappropriate for specific age groups or the community. District leaders say required lessons were "highlighted for their safety," and that all schools implemented required lessons while about half used additional recommended ones. Critics say the district has not clearly documented which lessons were included or excluded.

The curriculum became a flashpoint after the board adopted it in May 2023 following nearly two years of review. The issue surfaced in board elections and at multiple meetings, where vocal parents — including Carbondale resident Tanner Gianinetti, who successfully pushed to rescind kindergarten lessons at one school — have argued the rollout made opting out difficult and that some lessons are too explicit for young children. Other parents and community members support the curriculum as necessary health education.

Legal Backdrop: Mahmoud v. Taylor

ADF invoked the U.S. Supreme Court's June 27, 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a ruling widely seen as strengthening parents' ability to claim constitutional protections when schools provide LGBTQ-inclusive instruction without meaningful opt-outs. In that case the court ruled 6-3 that Montgomery County's refusal to permit opt-outs for LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks imposed an unconstitutional burden on parents' First Amendment rights. ADF filed an amicus brief in that case and now cites the ruling as precedent in its demand to Roaring Fork.

What's Next

ADF's letter gives the school board notice that legal action could follow if the district does not remove the curriculum or switch from an opt-out model to an opt-in requirement that would require affirmative parental consent. Roaring Fork officials acknowledged a request for comment from RealClearPolitics but had not provided a response within 48 hours. Advocates for Youth, the Washington, D.C. nonprofit that developed the 3Rs curriculum and supports LGBTQ-inclusive sex education, did not respond to requests for comment; its public materials describe a mission to advance sexual health, equity, and youth rights and note long-running advocacy programs including the Youth Advocate Institute.

The dispute highlights a broader national debate over school-based sex education, parental rights, and how schools balance inclusive curricula with community concerns. With the Supreme Court precedent and vocal local activism on both sides, the Roaring Fork conflict is likely to continue shaping policy and litigation over sex education in public schools.