FREMONT — A sex education course that touches on such personal matters as wet dreams is too explicit for children in grades 4-8, some angry parents told the Fremont school board last week.

But many other of the 60-plus speakers at the March 14 meeting supported the new health, puberty and sexuality curriculum, saying its focus on inclusiveness of different genders and sexual orientations is critical to developing empathetic, well-informed adults.

They also pointed out there’s no need to scrap or modify the lessons because parents who are concerned about the material can opt out of having their kids taught it. A note or an email to the student’s teacher suffices for opting out.

Because the curriculum was not on their meeting agenda, trustees did not respond to the comments. Unless the trustees schedule an immediate meeting and decide to scrap or modify the course, it will start being taught next month. Parents who learned of the course only recently urged the board to suspend it.

The lesson plans are based on the Rights, Respect and Responsibility sexual education curriculum developed by Advocates for Youth, and is referred to as the “3 Rs.”

The lessons would be taught to boys and girls together instead of separately, as they currently are. This ensures all children receive the same information, not just facts specific to their gender, and “removes the possibility of a gender nonconforming student needing to decide which gender group to go with,” according to the district.

The curriculum allows the district to comply with the state’s Healthy Youth Act, which among many standards requires lessons “affirmatively recognize that people have different sexual orientations” and “explore the harm of negative gender stereotypes.”

Sixteen-year-old Sameer Jha told the board that as a person who identifies as queer, he was bullied in Fremont schools because of who he is.

“And this was largely because of the fact that being queer was not talked about at all,” he said.

“The only knowledge I had of gay people was derogatory. If I had learned at the early age of fourth or fifth grade … that being gay was OK, that being transgender was OK, then my entire experience would have changed. I would have been able to be myself at a much earlier age; I would have been able to accept myself, and not hurt myself through the process of rejecting my own identity,” he said.

Jha and others also said that more inclusive lessons not only would help students identifying as LGBTQ, but also would help all students when they go into the “real world” and need to know how to respectfully interact with people who identify differently than they do.

Many parents told the board their concerns over the material have nothing to do with excluding people of diverse sexual identities.

“I welcome the gender inclusivity aspect of this curriculum,” one parent of a fifth-grader said. “But I am deeply concerned about the depth of information in sexual education that many 10- and 11-year-olds are not developmentally ready for.”

Another parent said he reviewed the lessons for fourth-graders and doesn’t see the need for his young son to know what a “wet dream” or a “spontaneous erection” is.

The board’s next meeting is 6 p.m. March 28. Meetings are held at the Fremont Unified School District offices at 4210 Technology Drive.