Readers React: Oceanside schools tried to tell kids the truth about sex education — and it was too much for adults

To the editor: The Oceanside Unified School District’s sex education program strikes me as worthy of emulation by other districts. Some parents, however, fret over how it cautions students about relying on religious organizations’ takes on sexual health — as if faith-based groups don’t harbor biases based on beliefs that defy empirical data and science.

In my view, the district should caution students about biased information from another dubious source: the Trump administration, by all accounts the most mendacious ever, whose Education secretary infamously has proclaimed that education should “advance God’s kingdom.”

Religious and political leaders persist with their woefully flawed abstinence-only pitches. Oceanside schools and other districts should prepare their young charges to rebuff them.

Roberta Helms, Santa Barbara

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To the editor: Oceanside schools’ critics claim the discarded sex education program “grooms [students] for premature sexual interest, experimentation, and engagement.”

Their complaint could hardly be more ironic. Sexual predators notoriously “groom” children to be ever more open to their advances.

Oceanside’s program appeared to arm kids with information they need to fend off predators. If there’s any error in drawing an age-appropriate line, let it be too early rather than too late.

Betty Turner, Sherman Oaks

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