Referendum 90 Sets New WA State Record for Signatures

Senate Bill 5395 was passed, along with it's House companion, in March of 2020. The bill expands the existing sexual education curriculum now used in public schools.

The bill, according to opponents, would drastically and negatively expand sex ed, to include:

• Mandates graphic sex education starting in elementary school.
•  Orders school districts to “comprehensively” include sex ed in all curriculum — including math, social studies, science, business and computer classes.
•  Denies parents and local school boards the power to decide what shall be taught.
•  Unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats will enforce extreme curriculum in every public school in the state (from Parents for Safe Schools).

Opponents, including those who created Referendum 90, say many of the materials being considered for the program are far too sexually explicit for grade school age children.

Referendum 90 was started by the group Parents for Safe Schools (PFSS), and this week they announced the number of signatures gathered is more than any other Referendum or Initiative in WA state history. Many smaller local organizations sprang up all over the state to help with the signature drive.

The requirement to get R-90 on the ballot was 129,811. The final tally according to PFSS was 266,000.

Of these, 19,000 alone  were gathered by the Facebook group Rise Up Tri-Cities. Leaders of that effort say there were thousands more gathered by other people in the Mid-Columbia who posted sign up ledgers in their businesses, or went door to door etc.

Once the Referendum signatures are verified and officially logged with the Secretary of State and election officials, it will be included on the ballot.

Representatives from PFSS and Rise Up Tri-Cities now say the focus becomes making sure the people who signed the petition get out and vote this fall.  Many of these groups are now focusing on voter awareness drives to remind people to cast their ballots.

To learn more about PFSS and see who is also supporting R-90, click on the button below.