Jenks school: ‘Gender’ lesson an enrollment mistake

Education

Ray Carter | February 21, 2025

Jenks school: ‘Gender’ lesson an enrollment mistake

Ray Carter

During a recent weather-related “virtual” day in the Jenks school district, some parents got a glimpse of course content—and didn’t like what they saw.

One lesson informed students that sex and gender are two different things. Images from that online course quickly spread on social media.

A Jenks spokesman says that course content is the product of an enrollment mistake.

“The provider of our virtual course offerings (Edgenuity) created two different virtual health courses. Some of our high school students were mistakenly enrolled in the course containing content that does not align with our District academic standards,” said Rob Loeber, executive director of communications for Jenks Public Schools. “Once this error was discovered, we communicated with the families of the affected students and made sure they were re-enrolled into the correct course within the same day. Our administrators have taken steps to ensure this kind of error does not occur in the future.”

One slide from the course presentation, shared on social media as a screenshot, declared, “There is a difference between biological sex and gender.”

“Our administrators have taken steps to ensure this kind of error does not occur in the future.” —Rob Loeber, Jenks Public Schools

The slide stated that biological sex is “either male or female” and “determined by biological factors, such as the chromosomes (XX for females and XY for males) and the type of reproductive organs one has.”

In contrast, the course slide said that gender is “the set of attitudes, feelings, and behaviors associated with a person’s biological sex within a culture” and is “reinforced by stereotypes.”

Voicing a common response, one local parent posted the slide online and wrote, “Jenks public schools, this is just wrong. Find this teacher and fire them.”

A message sent to parents by Jenks officials following public pushback stated, “In January 2025, your student was mistakenly enrolled in a virtual semester-long health course. The course included content that does not coincide with JPS academic standards, which align with the Oklahoma Academic Standards.

“Upon discovering this error, JPS immediately removed students from the course and re-enrolled them in the appropriate course giving students credit for lessons already completed,” the Jenks district message continued. “We sincerely regret this error and ask that you contact your student’s principal if you have additional questions.”

Ray Carter Director, Center for Independent Journalism

Ray Carter

Director, Center for Independent Journalism

Ray Carter is the director of OCPA’s Center for Independent Journalism. He has two decades of experience in journalism and communications. He previously served as senior Capitol reporter for The Journal Record, media director for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and chief editorial writer at The Oklahoman. As a reporter for The Journal Record, Carter received 12 Carl Rogan Awards in four years—including awards for investigative reporting, general news reporting, feature writing, spot news reporting, business reporting, and sports reporting. While at The Oklahoman, he was the recipient of several awards, including first place in the editorial writing category of the Associated Press/Oklahoma News Executives Carl Rogan Memorial News Excellence Competition for an editorial on the history of racism in the Oklahoma legislature.

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