Rhea Mahbubani

Parents Object to Program Encouraging LGBT Tolerance at San Ramon Middle School

The start of a week-long lesson on LGBT issues had some East Bay families keeping their middle-schoolers at home Monday.

San Ramon parents are protesting "Acceptance Week," as it is called, at Windemere Ranch Middle School. The goal of the program is to teach tolerance for the LGBT community.

However, at least 3 families didn’t send their children to school and nearly 170 opted to skip the lessons.

Parents have taken issue with some of the videos being used during the lessons. School officials removed specific clips, but refused to cancel the event altogether.

"I think the changes are adequate, but I still feel like the parents are the ones who should be given the rights to show the videos to their students and to have those discussions, not at school," said parent Robyn Barney.

The school district and superintendent reviewed and approved the videos, and many students told NBC Bay Area they support the program.

"Personally, I think that we're talking about acceptance for all and it's not too young to be talking about these things," Principal Dave Bolin said, stressing that the program is geared toward the "good of the school."

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