LAUSD introduces new sex-education classes for 4th graders

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- There's a new sex education program being tested for fourth graders in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Unified School District is also testing out the lessons in fifth and sixth grades at a handful of schools.

Wendy Sellers, the author of one of the courses, is a leading advocate of sex education. She says her course aims to change traditional training, where girls watched a video on menstruation, and boys were in a separate room learning something else.

The program is also inclusive of LGBTQ identities.

"Fourth grade, the focus is on gender roles and gender expectations, and how those are not fair or true representations for all individuals, and how they can be harmful and limiting," Sellers said.

Fifth and sixth graders will learn how to respect all peers despite gender or sexual orientation, Sellers said.

Administrators said their textbooks are more than a decade old. They expect new textbooks in two to three years when the state releases a new framework for health education.

The new course will be taught at 10 to 15 schools, and more courses will be released later.