Posted on 03/20/2002 7:50:16 AM PST by mykdsmom
RALEIGH - The controversy over whether Wake's sex education program should be broadened beyond abstinence-until-marriage now falls in the school board's lap, after an advisory committee recommended Tuesday that Wake schools switch to comprehensive sex education.
If the board agrees, Wake would become one of a handful in the state where students could learn about homosexuality, masturbation, specifics on how to use birth-control devices and other topics now prohibited by the abstinence-until-marriage theme.
The change must go through a board committee, public hearing and board vote before becoming effective, but the recommendation shows the growing influence in Wake of critics of the abstinence focus.
"You need to get comprehensive education at an earlier age when they're the most sexually interested," said Devereaux Munn, a member of the group that made the recommendation, the Wake School Health Advisory Council. The board-appointed group, which consists of doctors, school employees and community members, is charged with making recommendations on the healthful living curriculum.
Wake instituted the abstinence-until-marriage approach shortly after 1995, when the General Assembly made it the standard in seventh through ninth grades. Districts that want to go beyond that approach must take certain actions such as holding a public hearing.
About a dozen of the state's 117 school districts offer comprehensive sex education, said Artie Kamiya, who was chief of the state Department of Public Instruction's healthful living section before becoming Wake's senior administrator for health and physical education. In the Triangle, comprehensive sex education is offered in Durham and Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.
Groups such as the Christian Coalition support abstinence-only programs, but others such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics back comprehensive sex education.
Since 1995, critics have tried to persuade Wake to go with comprehensive sex education. They have called the state's abstinence law unrealistic for limiting discussion of sexual activity to monogamous heterosexual relationships in the context of marriage and saying that homosexual activity is illegal in North Carolina.
"It is time for us to leave our political and religious differences at the door and look after the best interests of the students," said parent Ann Farmer, a longtime advocate of comprehensive sex education.
Council member David Moore said he supported switching to comprehensive sex education because it will allow educators to better answer students' questions without worrying about violating the abstinence requirements. He also noted that abstinence is still the cornerstone of comprehensive sex education.
But supporters of teaching solely abstinence say that encouraging students not to have sex but also telling them what to do if they choose to have sex sends a mixed message.
Council member Larry Bauder warned that getting community support for comprehensive sex education for all students will be difficult. He urged that it be limited to elective classes. But fellow council member Janet Palmquist dissented, saying few students would take those courses.
Nine council members supported recommending a comprehensive family life curriculum in grades seven through nine. They also urged that high schools be encouraged to offer comprehensive sex education as an elective in grades 10 through 12, which is allowed but not widely offered in Wake.
Only two members voted to keep the current abstinence theme with a recommendation that comprehensive sex ed be taught only in electives in grades 10 through 12.
Cindi Jolly, the school system's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said she will present the council's recommendation in May to the school board's program committee. The committee will decide whether to recommend sending the issue to the full board.
Kamiya said it is possible that the policy change could be in place by next spring.
Even if the board rejects comprehensive sex education, it leaves in place proposed changes that administrators want to make so teachers know they can talk about a range of topics including oral and anal sex. Kamiya is rewriting the healthful living curriculum to expand what students can be taught, within the limits of the abstinence requirements.
Although the board could block the rewrite, the board almost always leaves such matters to the discretion of administrators.
In other business Tuesday, the board:
Changed the Internet and e-mail policy so that students will automatically get access unless their parents fill out a form denying them permission. Currently, students are denied Internet and e-mail access unless they get annual permission. Administrators recommended the change, which takes effect in the fall, because few parents deny access and the Internet is an educational tool.
I wasn't trying to insinuate that. I was just saying it hasn't happened at that particular school, yet. That's why I said if we can't stop it, I'd have to find other options.
I do think this particular principal (and some teachers) would resign over this issue, if push came to shove.
It's a Brave New World!
Gee, why not just send the students off to Catholic seminary...?
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