K
Karin
Guest
**Montgomery sex ed to be determined by ‘professional educators’ **
***Some want abstintence only class
***By ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG | Jul 28, 12:40 PM The Montgomery County Board of Education voted unanimously at their meeting Wednesday night that the new Citizens’ Advisory Committee will act in an advisory manner only. “Professional educators,” not the CAC, will create the sex education curriculum, they agreed.
The new committee will include, among other representatives, a person from Parents and Friends of ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) and Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC). The reconstituted committee will be announced at the Oct. 11 Board meeting.
In May, the Montgomery County Board of Education voted to create a new sex education program after CRC and PFOX sued the school district over complaints that the revised curriculum “normalized” homosexuality. The Board settled the suit and agreed to have a representative from CRC and PFOX on the new advisory committee.
But the debate continued at Wednesday’s meeting between those who support the revised, and now scrapped curriculum, and those who oppose it.
Opponents to comprehensive sex education in Montgomery County insist they are not anti-gay. But some of their comments at Wednesday night’s meeting may indicate otherwise.
Ruth M. Jacobs, a physician who is against the revisions adopted last year, said that the risks of anal sex should be taught. However, she made no mention of ways to protect oneself from the potential risks of anal sex or that heterosexuals engage in it too. The information she distributed to the audience only discussed health risks for men who have sex with men.
“Teaching about homosexuality and rectal sex at the public school may be just as fun as a “swirly” but all fun is relative,” she told the Board. Jacobs explained that a “swirly” is when a person dunks his or her head in the toilet and flushes.
She continued: “Everyone knows it is risky to put your head in a toilet. No one should sanitize the risk of rectal sex.”
Some speakers asked that the health curriculum include a discussion of the widely discredited reparative therapy, which aims to change people’s sexual orientation.
“Groups such as the American Psychological Association currently recommend schools censor all ‘ex-gay’ materials,” said Samara Mendoza, a parent and opponent of comprehensive sex education. “Respect for diversity, however, requires teaching about all principled positions.”
But is reparative therapy a principled position? Former advisory committee member David S. Fishback told the Board that according to several major medical associations, including the American Medical Association, the answer is no. In fact, he stated, PFOX president Richard Cohen was expelled from the American Counseling Association.
Several speakers implored the Board to offer an abstinence only alternative class that would depict a “traditional family” as the ideal to strive for. A “traditional family,” according to their definition, is a married man and woman. They claimed that the new curriculum marginalized these families.
However, the new curriculum only listed several types of families that can be found in Montgomery County, including same sex families. The discussion of homosexuality was limited to a series of terse definitions and statements, like that most medical experts agree homosexuality is not a choice and that it is not a mental disorder. (The complete curriculum can be found at www.teachthefacts.org.)
An alternative class is also needed because opting-out stigmatizes students, several speakers told the Board. Spencer Irvine, a senior, opted out of his eighth grade health class. It was awkward and uncomfortable to have to leave class and sit in the library by himself, he said. His health class did not mention homosexuality but his family opposed its discussion of contraception.
“Some of the things in there did not relate to my moral beliefs about abstinence,” Irvine said. When asked why his commitment to abstinence meant he couldn’t learn about contraception, his mother interjected, "I think that’s up to the parents.
http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=1795
***Some want abstintence only class
***By ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG | Jul 28, 12:40 PM The Montgomery County Board of Education voted unanimously at their meeting Wednesday night that the new Citizens’ Advisory Committee will act in an advisory manner only. “Professional educators,” not the CAC, will create the sex education curriculum, they agreed.
The new committee will include, among other representatives, a person from Parents and Friends of ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) and Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC). The reconstituted committee will be announced at the Oct. 11 Board meeting.
In May, the Montgomery County Board of Education voted to create a new sex education program after CRC and PFOX sued the school district over complaints that the revised curriculum “normalized” homosexuality. The Board settled the suit and agreed to have a representative from CRC and PFOX on the new advisory committee.
But the debate continued at Wednesday’s meeting between those who support the revised, and now scrapped curriculum, and those who oppose it.
Opponents to comprehensive sex education in Montgomery County insist they are not anti-gay. But some of their comments at Wednesday night’s meeting may indicate otherwise.
Ruth M. Jacobs, a physician who is against the revisions adopted last year, said that the risks of anal sex should be taught. However, she made no mention of ways to protect oneself from the potential risks of anal sex or that heterosexuals engage in it too. The information she distributed to the audience only discussed health risks for men who have sex with men.
“Teaching about homosexuality and rectal sex at the public school may be just as fun as a “swirly” but all fun is relative,” she told the Board. Jacobs explained that a “swirly” is when a person dunks his or her head in the toilet and flushes.
She continued: “Everyone knows it is risky to put your head in a toilet. No one should sanitize the risk of rectal sex.”
Some speakers asked that the health curriculum include a discussion of the widely discredited reparative therapy, which aims to change people’s sexual orientation.
“Groups such as the American Psychological Association currently recommend schools censor all ‘ex-gay’ materials,” said Samara Mendoza, a parent and opponent of comprehensive sex education. “Respect for diversity, however, requires teaching about all principled positions.”
But is reparative therapy a principled position? Former advisory committee member David S. Fishback told the Board that according to several major medical associations, including the American Medical Association, the answer is no. In fact, he stated, PFOX president Richard Cohen was expelled from the American Counseling Association.
Several speakers implored the Board to offer an abstinence only alternative class that would depict a “traditional family” as the ideal to strive for. A “traditional family,” according to their definition, is a married man and woman. They claimed that the new curriculum marginalized these families.
However, the new curriculum only listed several types of families that can be found in Montgomery County, including same sex families. The discussion of homosexuality was limited to a series of terse definitions and statements, like that most medical experts agree homosexuality is not a choice and that it is not a mental disorder. (The complete curriculum can be found at www.teachthefacts.org.)
An alternative class is also needed because opting-out stigmatizes students, several speakers told the Board. Spencer Irvine, a senior, opted out of his eighth grade health class. It was awkward and uncomfortable to have to leave class and sit in the library by himself, he said. His health class did not mention homosexuality but his family opposed its discussion of contraception.
“Some of the things in there did not relate to my moral beliefs about abstinence,” Irvine said. When asked why his commitment to abstinence meant he couldn’t learn about contraception, his mother interjected, "I think that’s up to the parents.
http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=1795