By Nathan Fu and Tanisha Singh | Culture Editor and Staff Writer

This school year, the health department has mandated health class for all freshman, meaning that freshman will not be able to completely opt out of health class any more. In addition to these changes, the health department will be adopting a new textbook.

“You go through textbook adoption every so often because information gets old and renewal is needed.” said health teacher Mrs. Gavin. “Due to the fact that common core has come into place and standards are changing, a lot of health textbooks are not being produced right now because the framework and standards need to be in place. This process takes about five years.” The new textbooks will continue to cover similar topics, but many parents had concerns with their child participating in certain sections of the health curriculum.

Due to these concerns, Irvington has implemented an option that allows students to skip those sections and do alternate assignments instead of opting out of the class.

“Ed code requires that you may only opt out of certain sections of the class” explained Mrs. Gavin, “but you can’t opt out of the whole class.”

Many freshmen believe that they should still have the option of opting out.

“I feel that we should have been able to.” said freshman Brandon Sun. “I was disappointed that the option was taken out and counselors did not explain why this had happened.”

Despite not being able to opt out of health class, students and parents can still choose to skip certain sections; therefore, the removal of the opt out rule still takes into consideration any objections parents may have towards the curriculum.

“It provides flexibility for students who want to opt out of sections that they have objections to,” said Mrs. Gavin, “without limiting the knowledge base.”