The Crazy World Facebook page, whose pieces of disinformation have been verified by FactCheck multiple times in the past, made a publication which says that at least 5% of the students in each class should be of a non-traditional sexual orientation according to the new educational standards in the city of Seattle.
In particular, the post reads: “Children will face difficulties in Seattle. As reported by the US media, the Department of Education drafted a new educational standard which establishes that at least 5% of the students in classrooms should be of a non-traditional sexual orientation. Do you want to go to school? Become a gay!” As proof, the post contains a screenshot of the article published on SeattleMet website, although not the link that would take us to the actual article. In fact, no such educational standard was ever adopted in Seattle whilst the screenshot of the article is doctored.
The screenshot, which was posted by the Facebook page which ostensibly shows an article entitled “School Rules” published on the SeattleMet website, is false and has been doctored.
In fact, the aforementioned classroom photograph was included in a completely different SeattleMet article published in 2022 with the headline as follows: “Child Care Options During the Seattle Public Schools Strike.” The real article in fact contains advice on how parents should act in case Seattle’s public schools go on strike.
Of note is that the first paragraph of the aforementioned article refers to the Seattle Education Association. The name of the association is also visible on the fake screenshot. However, a typographical error was made and a space was missing after the word “Association.” This detail also indicates that the authors of the disinformation item doctored the screenshot of this article.
The "School Rules" article cannot be found on SeattleMet's website. In addition, there is no information available on the website about the new educational standard according to which 5% of students in school classes should be of a non-traditional sexual orientation.
In order to clarify the information, FactCheck also checked the website of the US Department of Education, the educational regulations of the state of Washington and the general rules of the city of Seattle Public Schools for the years 2023-2024. The aforementioned sources do not contain information about the new educational regulations published by the Crazy World Facebook page. Moreover, the post itself mentions that "American mass media reports that a new educational standard was drafted in the Department of Education...," although not a single American media outlet has published such information.
Therefore, information that at least 5% of students should be of a non-traditional sexual orientation according to a new educational standard in Seattle is false.
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