The generations-long debate begins in most households when
parents receive notice about their child being taught sex education
at school.
The generations-long debate begins in most households when parents receive notice about their child being taught sex education at school. Some favor comprehensive sex education while others prefer abstinence-only information.
The potential for debate surfaced recently when parents received letters that their children would be participating in Family Life Education, or sex ed. Usually, students receive instruction in the spring, once in elementary school, once in middle school and once in high school.
Parents of fifth graders received a letter from the Hollister School District last week informing them that Family Life Education will be taught in May. Parents can contact their child’s school if they do not want the student participating, said Pam Little, coordinator of special programs with the HSD.
The letter also informs parents of a preview night scheduled for Thursday that will review course material. The letter and preview are mandated by the state, as is sex education instruction, Little said.
Overheads, worksheets and information that will be handed out to students will be available at the preview night for parents to review.
“We offer puberty education to fulfill state requirements and to let students know what changes are taking place in their bodies,” Little said.
Little said, however, that some parents have said that sex education in the schools is too explicit, where homosexuality, masturbation or birth control is discussed. Also, parents tend to be opposed to sex ed units that show students how to unroll condoms. However, none of the above subjects are discussed at HSD elementary or middle schools, she said.
Despite what parents or advocacy groups argue is appropriate, California mandates that sex education classes “emphasize that abstinence from sexual intercourse is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against unwanted teenage pregnancy.”
“When students ask about birth control, we direct them to their parents,” Little said.
The state also mandates that “factual information be presented in course material shall be medically accurate and objective.”
In the HSD, students take sex education classes in the fifth and seventh grades. San Benito High School covers sex education once during the freshman year, said Superintendent Jean Burns Slater.
Topics discussed in fifth grade include abstinence, decision making, communicable disease prevention, hygiene, menstruation, puberty, refusal skills and male and female reproductive anatomy.
“We do whatever the state mandates,” Little said. “… Children are curious and they want to know what’s happening. Not all children get the information at home. Some families are more comfortable with the school taking on that role.”
A former HSD school nurse coordinates the program and will be available during Thursday’s preview night. Fifth-grade teachers receive 90 minutes of training before teaching the Family Life Education class, Little said.
The district’s seventh-grade class is Human Growth and Reproduction. At this point, some students are “starting to become sexually active,” Little said, and teachers use a textbook to guide the program.
