In yet another backlash against the Santa Barbara Unified School District, parents and advocates this week convinced the school board to halt its plan for sex education in junior high schools taught by physical education teachers.
The district proposed a curriculum called Teen Talk in order to meet new state standards for health education in public schools.
Several parents spoke out Tuesday night against the district for attempting to move forward with the program despite a low response rate to a survey of teachers.
Ten junior high school teachers and seven health teachers responded to a district survey asking their curriculum preference.
The district also held community meetings for seventh- and eighth-grade parents. Between eight and 25 people attended each session, and 27 people gave feedback on surveys or via email.
"I am concerned about the small number of responses and input, and I am concerned about PE teachers and PE classes being the place where this takes place," said school board member Kate Ford.
Ford said she taught the class earlier in her career when it was called "Family Life." She loved teaching the class because she said the kids really wanted to know about their bodies and what it is like to become adults.
"But a lot of adults don't feel comfortable teaching this stuff, and to me you just have to find the right mix of teacher, time during the school day, time during the school year, and age group," Ford said.
Families have the ability to opt out of the classes, but even so, some parents believe the curriculum has no place in public schools.
"What Teen Talk is and what the school district is proposing is to teach the religion of secular humanism," said parent Greg Hammel. "Most major religions adhere to abstinence and most of our children's parents are of these religions, whether they are Judaism, Christianity or Islam.
"In those religions, abstinence would be for kids and sex is reserved for marriage."
Hammel said the First Amendment of the constitution does not allow public schools to promote one religion over another "and that is what you are doing."
"It is against the constitution for Teen Talk to exclusively promote the secular religion, which it does," Hammel said.
Some of the parents raised questions about the curriculum, which includes talk of condoms, anal sex and masturbation.
The curriculum provides information on values about gender roles, relationships, and sexuality; provides information about where to obtain reproductive health care; encourages parent and trusted adult communication; incorporates multi-day parent/trusted adult interview homework assignment for students; and gender inclusive language.
Passed in 2016, AB329 created the California Healthy Youth Act.
The California Health Education Framework was released and provides guidance on health education content standards. It does not dictate curriculum but provides suggestions.
The program is intended to provide “education regarding human development and sexuality, including education on pregnancy, contraception, and sexually transmitted infections,” including HIV.
Board member Wendy Sims-Moten urged the board to slow down and get more feedback from parents.
"This is such a sensitive and emotional topic, can we wait a little longer?" Sims-Moten asked.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
