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(12/8/2005)
Controversial Sex Ed Material Up in the Air Sioux Falls school district removes racy sex ed material from classroom, opponents fear it may return later
BY BOB ELLIS DAKOTA VOICE
Sioux Falls middle schools have been the setting for intense debate since early October when a group of concerned parents asked whether the new health curriculum was appropriate for their young children.
Health Smart, published in 2004 by ETR Associates (www.etr.org) in California, was chosen by the school district before the current school year began, and when some parents got a look at the material, they became concerned. When they discussed it with education officials and got a look at the teacher reference material, they became even more apprehensive. For many, it was not only the explicit nature of some of the material which was unsettling, but the fact that the curriculum seemed to be lacking in hard facts, and appeared to feature more open-ended discussion than following a set lesson plan with specific information, goals and objectives. Students don’t actually get a textbook but instead receive a series of workbooks that are about 20-30 pages in length. Subjects deal with alcohol, drugs, tobacco, nutrition, bullying and sex education—which includes abstinence, puberty, reproduction and STD/HIV prevention. According to concerned parent Cathy Clapper, the workbook contains few actual facts and is mostly a series of scenarios with open-ended questions and spaces to write answers. Here is an example of one question from the workbook: Shauna and Marshall have been in a relationship for 8 months and have been sexually active for about half that time. When Shauna gets her annual routine physical exam from her doctor, her doctor tells her that she has genital warts. Shauna did not realize she had them. She had another sexual partner just before meeting Marshall a few months ago, but she did not tell Marshall about him because she thought he would be jealous. What should Shauna do? Another scenario is about J.D. and Monica. They have been going out for a few months and they're talking about having sex. But J.D. has herpes, and he's worried about what she'll think of him and whether she'll still want to be with him. What should they do? The teachers manual said that Monica should tell J.D. that they should use a condom. Clapper says that though the teacher’s material has more real information, it is this book that causes many of the misgivings parents have. The book includes a list of websites that can be referred to for more information about the subject material, and one of them is Teenwire, the website which was removed from the South Dakota state library website after much controversy last year. Here is some of the information dispensed on the Teenwire.com site:
The teacher’s material also provides lengthy descriptions of an extensive list of contraceptives, some of which many parents say they’ve never heard of. One parent who is an OB/GYN physician examined the material and said it contained a lot of age-inappropriate material, and that a lot of the information included things she didn’t learn until medical school—yet teens and preteens are being exposed to it.
Dr. Lornell Hansen, who taught sex education at the university level, said there were a number of medical inaccuracies in the material, as well. Clapper said the curriculum discussed the Today Sponge and how it can be obtained over the internet without a prescription, as if providing teens with a tip on how to obtain contraceptives without their parents knowledge. The definition of abstinence in the material is: "Sexual abstinence means choosing not to participate in any sexual activity that can result in pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease." Since the material implies to students that condoms are a reliable form of protection against pregnancy and disease, then it becomes easy to reach the conclusion that as long as a condom is used during intercourse, abstinence can be maintained. Many concerned parents object to the assumptions implied by the material. In other words, the explicit nature of the material, coupled with references to regular sexual activity, STDs and the like, the curriculum makes the assumption that children at that age are expected to be sexually active. Parents believe the students will naturally pick up on this expectation and assume that since educational authorities believe they will be sexually active at that age, then it's normal for them to be. Yet sexual activity at the middle school age is not only abnormal, it is also illegal for children under the age of 16 to engage in sexual activity according to South Dakota Statute 22-22. Therefore the assumption of normal sexual activity at this age seems out of order. Even Sioux Falls parents who don't have their children in the public school system are concerned, because Christian schooled and home schooled children still interact with public schooled children in neighborhoods and many other settings. The information from Health Smart is certain to be passed around when the children get together and talk. The school board made the decision to pull the material for now, while they look for another health curriculum. However, some parents are concerned because the board did not exclude Health Smart from consideration in the new review. It is not known how many schools in South Dakota may be using Health Smart, but a preliminary check of the Rapid City schools indicated that district was not. Concerned parents should contact their local education officials to find out what is being used in their area.
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